Explorer West Celebrates Family with 2nd Annual Sustainability Festival and 10th Anniversary Party

Imagine the 10th birthday party of a child prodigy raised in a loving family, a person gifted with intelligence and vision far beyond their years who knows the value of kindness. This is a smart and good little person...

On Friday, April 11, 2007, the greater Explorer West Middle school community, past and present, gathered to celebrate 10 years of middle school energy and excellence, as well as a growing emphasis on sustainability. Enthusiasm and thoughtfulness were present in equal measures for this “child prodigy” school – itself now just on the brink of a promising adulthood.

Since September classes had addressed the question, what sustains families? At the festival students rotated through stations to explore projects on family, entering responses in their personal Family Matters Passport. Displays and posters captured every Explorer West family from the multiple perspectives of art, music, and books. Eighth graders produced surveys on indicators for quality of life, posting graphed data and their interpretations of data on how well different sectors of the Explorer West community are “living the good life”.

Time and attention were also devoted to those not privileged by adequate resources or a stable family. Valerie Thomas from Seattle Department of Human Services gave a talk on the plight of children living on the streets or in foster care in Seattle. Eighth grade posters on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children explored challenges faced by children around the world in the areas of labor, health, education, displacement, detention, war, and justice. Posters also highlighted solutions to these problems.

On a lighter note, in a family budgeting activity students discovered that even within the same family not everyone values the same thing. Finally, to end the afternoon, Seventh and eighth graders approached Latin perfection in two hilarious skits, We Are Family and Romans Go Home!

Then, in anticipation of the evening festivities, staff and students worked together to host over 400 guests, including former teachers, alumni and families from each of the previous ten years, as well as founding board members. Outgoing board Chair Petyr Beck introduced incoming board chair Doug Pedegana, and offered acknowledgements to Pat Preib, founding Head of School, and to Rick Marting for his two years of stellar service as interim Head of School. Incoming Head of School Evan Hundley was introduced to the community to hearty applause.

Aurora de la Cruz and Kristin Moore directed attention to each of the previous ten years of alumni in attendance and Ben Wheeler highlighted Explorer West’s dual 2007 honors for environmental sustainability: the National Association of Independent Schools Leading Edge award and the King County Earth Heroes award.

Like a child prodigy and like the goal of global sustainability, Explorer West is a remarkable work in progress. If Explorer West continues to harness the energy of youth with the foresight and long view of sustainability, the community can look forward to another ten years of uncommon middle school excellence.

8th Graders Place 5th in National Contest

The Explorer West 8th grade weather forecasting team: Barite, Kyle, Christyn, Indigo, and Ally, placed fifth in a month-long national competition sponsored by Weducation, Inc. Each week the students were given a different forecast city and were tasked with forecasting the high temperature, low temperature and precitipation for that city for each day using data about climate, terrain, from satellites and more. The students also worked as a team to complete a weekly Earth Science test. Our team placed 5th overall and was the winner for the Dallas, Texas forecast week. Prizes will be awarded before the end of the year. CONGRATULATIONS!!!