A new group of Carver students begins its own Ecology School journey at River Bend Farm
Another Carver bus departed for Maine, and this time, it is carrying our rising sixth graders on their first Carver adventure at The Ecology School. We shared here about the students who returned to The Ecology School yesterday.
The rising 6th grade students are spending this week at River Bend Farm in Saco, Maine, a historic 105-acre farm nestled along a scenic bend in the Saco River and just twenty minutes from the Maine coast.
For these students, nearly everything about the week is new.
For some, this is their first extended time away from home. For some, it is their first trip outside Connecticut. And for all of them, it is the beginning of an experience Carver hopes they will return to throughout their middle school years.
They will hike through Maine forests, explore tidepools along the coast, canoe, investigate river and field ecosystems, take part in outdoor activities and challenges, and end their days gathering with friends and educators around the campfire.
The Beginning of a Carver Tradition
Carver’s experience at The Ecology School is intentionally designed as a multi-year journey.
Our rising sixth graders arrive this summer as newcomers. When they return in the years ahead, the trails will be more familiar, their confidence greater, and their understanding of the natural world deeper. Eventually, they will become the experienced older students welcoming and encouraging another group of sixth graders making this journey for the very first time.
That progression is part of what makes this experience so special.
Carver CEO Novelette Peterkin was there to send the students off on their Maine adventure. She will soon make the journey north herself, spending time at The Ecology School to share in the students’ experiences, see their learning and growth firsthand, and encourage them as they take on new challenges far from home.
The Ecology School’s Summer Ecology Academy makes the outdoors the classroom. Its educators encourage students to learn by doing—observing closely, asking questions, getting their hands dirty, exploring unfamiliar environments, and discovering how forests, rivers, fields, wildlife, and coastal ecosystems are connected.
But some of the most important learning may be harder to measure.
A week away from home asks young people to try new things, navigate unfamiliar surroundings, share responsibilities, make decisions, build friendships, and discover just how much they can do for themselves.
There were plenty of parents and family members at departure to offer last-minute hugs, words of encouragement, and a few final phone calls before the bus pulled away. Sending a child off for a week is a milestone, too, especially when that child has never traveled this far from home before.
The photographs in the gallery below capture the beginning of that journey: families saying goodbye, friends climbing aboard together, nervous smiles giving way to excitement, and a bus full of rising sixth graders with their pillows heading north toward a week none of them is likely to forget.
Carver is profoundly grateful to The Grossman Family Foundation, whose generous and sustained support makes this extraordinary experience possible and gives Carver students the opportunity to return to Maine as they grow through their middle school years.
To our newest Ecology School adventurers: Maine is waiting. Explore everything, try something new, look out for one another—and have a wonderful week!
