Into the Wild: CM's Seventh Graders Discover Brotherhood at Acadia National Park
The middle school's seventh graders disovered their CM brotherhood in the Maine wildnerness during the school's annual Acadia National Park Trip last week.
West Roxbury, Mass—Matthew Tobin and Connor Fryberger knew each other about as well as any seventh grader does during their first month at a new school.
They said, “Hi” to each other in the halls, recognized one another from a few classes, and on days few and far between, bumped into each other in the cafeteria line. For all the talk about brotherhood at Catholic Memorial School, they sure expected something more.
That “more” arrived right on time for both students and their 61 fellow CM seventh graders last Tuesday. In northern Maine, not West Roxbury, actually. During the fifth annual Acadia National Park Trip, CM’s newest middle school students embarked on a four-day, three-night excursion into the Acadia wilderness expecting to learn about the national park’s geology and wildlife. On Friday morning, they left with a souvenir far more valuable.
A brotherhood.
“Some of these kids have never been this close to nature before,” said middle school science teacher Ms.Nora McGauley, who prepped her students with geology lessons prior to the trip.
“This is one of the strongest classes that I’ve brought up. They received an education from the rangers and asked a lot of questions.”
Two sets of buses carried the seventh graders on their six-hour trek to the Schoodic Education and Research Center of Acadia National Park in Maine. Located in Winter Harbor, the center belongs to a wider network of 19 research learning centers known as the Schoodic Institute. The institute provides students with an understanding and appreciation of nature through its own research and learning opportunities.
In conjunction with rangers from the National Park Service, the Schoodic Institute organized an array of activities for the boys. Six groups of CM students rotated between tide pooling, geology hikes, and GPS mapping over the course of the four days, the highlight being the Schoodic Head hike. At night, the groups took turns on night hikes, camp fires, and art classes.
“I thought it was interesting how, at different points of the hike, we’d stop and then test the soil in the ground to see if different types of soil were more acidic than the other spots,” said Matthew Tobin, recollecting his group’s hike up Schoodic Head.
“Other schools may teach you science but won’t take you to Maine to live the science.”
The Acadia National Park Trip began when CM received a grant from Rockland Trust for a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) immersion trip in 2014. The grant covered every student’s non-travel expenses. Born out of the CM Brother Edmund Rice Solidarity Initiative (BERSI), the trip accommodates CM's seventh grade students. Despite this transition, the trip incorporates BERSI’s reflective, theological practices into its own itinerary. The practices, when applied toward the trip’s geological focus, promoted a sense of belonging, stewardship, and brotherhood among the seventh graders.
“In Acadia, we have the chance to show the boys the ‘CM Way’ which started with an understanding that they are ‘their brother’s keeper,’” said the head of CM’s middle school, Mr. Thomas Ryan, who chaperoned the trip alongside Ms. McGauley, Mr. Kevin Durazo, Mr. Shawn Cusson, Ms. Margaret MacMullin, Mr. Brian Palm, and Ms. Anne Batcheller.
Between the breathtaking views of the Schoodic peninsula and the dozens of crab species running between the students’ legs in tide pools, the students applied these reflective practices at the dinner table and around the camp fire. Late night talks kindled friendships that transcended their surfaces. They learned of each other’s lives outside of school, where they grew up and what brought them to those puddles of frigid water, looking for names of crabs they never heard of before, in the first place. Every new experience brought on a new conversation.
“Ultimately, the goal of a CM education isn’t about the self-glorification, but the empowerment of others,” added Mr. Ryan.
“Academically, it is an environment that provides an authentic, real-world relevant, and student centered educational setting."
In the weeks following the trip, the students return to CM prepared for a series of projects that reflect on their experience. Seed dispersal experiments in Critical Making I and gratitude letters in Theology keep memories of community dinners, tide pools, and altitude-acidity measurements fresh in mind.
However, a much more profound impression lasts for years.
“My favorite memory from the Acadia trip is eating dinner with my CM brothers,” said sophomore Ryan Horrigan, who attended the Acadia National Park Trip four years ago.
“Each one of my roommates brought one new face to the table, someone he had been getting to know during the previous few weeks in Donahue Hall. When I look around at my lunch table now, I see those same faces. Those are my friends. We study together, we see movies together, we just hang out. But it all started in Acadia, at dinner.”
They said, “Hi” to each other in the halls, recognized one another from a few classes, and on days few and far between, bumped into each other in the cafeteria line. For all the talk about brotherhood at Catholic Memorial School, they sure expected something more.
That “more” arrived right on time for both students and their 61 fellow CM seventh graders last Tuesday. In northern Maine, not West Roxbury, actually. During the fifth annual Acadia National Park Trip, CM’s newest middle school students embarked on a four-day, three-night excursion into the Acadia wilderness expecting to learn about the national park’s geology and wildlife. On Friday morning, they left with a souvenir far more valuable.
A brotherhood.
“Some of these kids have never been this close to nature before,” said middle school science teacher Ms.Nora McGauley, who prepped her students with geology lessons prior to the trip.
“This is one of the strongest classes that I’ve brought up. They received an education from the rangers and asked a lot of questions.”
Two sets of buses carried the seventh graders on their six-hour trek to the Schoodic Education and Research Center of Acadia National Park in Maine. Located in Winter Harbor, the center belongs to a wider network of 19 research learning centers known as the Schoodic Institute. The institute provides students with an understanding and appreciation of nature through its own research and learning opportunities.
In conjunction with rangers from the National Park Service, the Schoodic Institute organized an array of activities for the boys. Six groups of CM students rotated between tide pooling, geology hikes, and GPS mapping over the course of the four days, the highlight being the Schoodic Head hike. At night, the groups took turns on night hikes, camp fires, and art classes.
“I thought it was interesting how, at different points of the hike, we’d stop and then test the soil in the ground to see if different types of soil were more acidic than the other spots,” said Matthew Tobin, recollecting his group’s hike up Schoodic Head.
“Other schools may teach you science but won’t take you to Maine to live the science.”
The Acadia National Park Trip began when CM received a grant from Rockland Trust for a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) immersion trip in 2014. The grant covered every student’s non-travel expenses. Born out of the CM Brother Edmund Rice Solidarity Initiative (BERSI), the trip accommodates CM's seventh grade students. Despite this transition, the trip incorporates BERSI’s reflective, theological practices into its own itinerary. The practices, when applied toward the trip’s geological focus, promoted a sense of belonging, stewardship, and brotherhood among the seventh graders.
“In Acadia, we have the chance to show the boys the ‘CM Way’ which started with an understanding that they are ‘their brother’s keeper,’” said the head of CM’s middle school, Mr. Thomas Ryan, who chaperoned the trip alongside Ms. McGauley, Mr. Kevin Durazo, Mr. Shawn Cusson, Ms. Margaret MacMullin, Mr. Brian Palm, and Ms. Anne Batcheller.
Between the breathtaking views of the Schoodic peninsula and the dozens of crab species running between the students’ legs in tide pools, the students applied these reflective practices at the dinner table and around the camp fire. Late night talks kindled friendships that transcended their surfaces. They learned of each other’s lives outside of school, where they grew up and what brought them to those puddles of frigid water, looking for names of crabs they never heard of before, in the first place. Every new experience brought on a new conversation.
“Ultimately, the goal of a CM education isn’t about the self-glorification, but the empowerment of others,” added Mr. Ryan.
“Academically, it is an environment that provides an authentic, real-world relevant, and student centered educational setting."
In the weeks following the trip, the students return to CM prepared for a series of projects that reflect on their experience. Seed dispersal experiments in Critical Making I and gratitude letters in Theology keep memories of community dinners, tide pools, and altitude-acidity measurements fresh in mind.
However, a much more profound impression lasts for years.
“My favorite memory from the Acadia trip is eating dinner with my CM brothers,” said sophomore Ryan Horrigan, who attended the Acadia National Park Trip four years ago.
“Each one of my roommates brought one new face to the table, someone he had been getting to know during the previous few weeks in Donahue Hall. When I look around at my lunch table now, I see those same faces. Those are my friends. We study together, we see movies together, we just hang out. But it all started in Acadia, at dinner.”
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Catholic Memorial, the Christian Brothers School of Boston, prepares boys for college, manhood and a world full of unknown challenges, ambiguity and complex problems and the importance of relationships.
