Chewonki to celebrate first middle school graduation

Thu, 05/28/2020 - 7:00am

June 5 marks the last day of school for the students of Chewonki Elementary and Middle School and celebrates a milestone achievement for our first graduating class of middle school students. We are tremendously proud of their personal growth and academic achievement, and we look forward to watching them continue to grow as they matriculate to local area high schools, including Brunswick High School, Lincoln Academy, Morse High School and Waynflete.

Ana Burroughs is a graduating 8th grader at Chewonki Elementary Middle School. She is 13 years old and currently lives in Bowdoinham. Ana has loved all aspects of the Chewonki program and has especially enjoyed all the environmental science that has been weaved into the studies. She has cherished moments spent on the gorgeous Chewonki Neck, exploring the rocky coast, forest, and salt marsh. Ana has especially loved visiting the farm and learning how to cultivate fresh produce and has a deep passion for caring for all the animals. She runs cross country, loves to read, play music, and play with her cat. Ana will be entering Waynflete in the fall.

Jackson Andrew James is 14 years old, and lives in Georgetown. His favorite area of study at Chewonki is phenology. He really likes being outdoors and learning more about it. Jackson enjoys biking, fishing, and tends to spend most of his free time doing these activities. He will be attending Morse High School in Bath next year. He is currently unsure about what he wants to do in the future, but one idea that came to his mind was being a game warden.

Mara Ann Mcintyre is 13 years old. She has lived in Georgetown her entire life. Mara loves all academic areas, but her favorites are science, literacy, and math. Mara loves to do sports. She has played lacrosse, basketball, and field hockey, but enjoys lacrosse the most. She loves music and art and has taken after school guitar lessons. Mara is attending Lincoln Academy and is taking Honors English, Honors B Biology, and Honors Algebra. She loves learning at Chewonki because of all of the unique learning experiences and wilderness trips. Mara has always had a passion for photography and is thinking about being a professional photographer, but she also has thought of playing women's lacrosse.

Olivia Winn, a 14-year-old from Georgetown, has attended Chewonki Elementary and Middle school for two years and loves to write. Olivia’s favorite topic to write about is nature, and her story about her class hiking trip to the Bigelows even won a local writing competition. Thankful for her time and learning at Chewonki, Olivia donated her writing competition prize money to Chewonki and other charities. Olivia has fond memories of climbing Blueberry Hill and racing canoes with her classmates.  Some of her favorite academic activities include solving mathematical equations and learning about genetics and other science topics. While at Chewonki, Olivia also learned about the inner workings of the farm by helping there with her classmates, and she sometimes took part in art club, calligraphy club, running club, and other after school activities. Next year Olivia is planning to attend Waynflete in Portland, Maine, and dreams of becoming an aerospace engineer, a marine biologist, a bioengineer, or a writer.

Seamus Bowdish is 14 years old and lives in West Bath. He will be attending Brunswick High School next year and enjoys studying sciences such as physics and chemistry, and hopes to study computer science during his high school career. Seamus enjoys studying biology with his peers at Chewonki, and doing phenology activities at his sit spot. Seamus loves traveling with his family, and has been through the lower 48 states of the U.S. He loves the outdoors, and spends most of his time outside.

Sierra Morgan lives in Alna, and enjoys paddling on the Sheepscot River that runs by her house. She loves to watercolor botanicals, bake bread, and write letters. Finding connections through people and the natural world are important to her. In school, Sierra’s favorite areas of study are english and history. This spring Sierra received an award for superior writing from the National Council of Teachers of English for her submission to the 8th Grade Promising Young Writers annual contest. At Chewonki, she loves shucking beans each fall on the farm, going on wilderness trips, and learning outside in the woods and salt marsh. Sierra is 13 years old, and will be attending Lincoln Academy this coming fall. She hopes to be a teacher someday, to share her love of learning with others.

Theona Aieta Gehan is from Georgetown, and is 14 years old. She will be attending Lincoln Academy, and wants to become a freelance illustrator and an environmental lawyer. In her free time she enjoys long wilderness trips, caring for her growing collection of plants, and making art. Her favorite parts of the day at Chewonki are being in the clay studio, geometry, and theme studies. She will miss taking end of the day walks to Blueberry Hill, and the amazing adventures she and her class had (inside and outside of the classroom).

Gavin Peck is one of eight graduating eighth-graders at Chewonki Elementary and Middle School. Gavin is 14 years old and loves studying nature at his home on Westport Island. As Gavin is moving towards becoming a freshman at Lincoln Academy, he’s beginning to think of what studies he should focus on to work towards his dream job — architecture. He is also very interested in track and field.