to the

students are offered scholarships.

Reller heard about the opportunity from her sister’s friend and attended the Mountain School for the fall 2022 session. Reller said she recognizes the significant cost as a barrier to participating for some students.

“The program is definitely not super accessible to average high schoolers,” Reller said. “There’s pretty good scholarship opportunities but I’m sure it’s very competitive and hard to obtain.”

The Island School

ANOTHER SEMESTER STUDY away program, the Island School, is set on the island of South Eleuthera in the Bahamas, and is a 100-day program designed for high school sophomores and juniors.

Senior Paige Henry attended the Island School in the spring session of 2022 and said she would recommend the program.

“I learned about taking care of our planet and sustainability, how everyone contributes in a community-based environment and learning how to get along with all types of people and personalities,” Henry said.

Tuition, including room and board, for a semester session runs about $36,450, while a summer session costs $16,850 — according to its website.

Henry said that although the program’s cost is sizable, there are benefits not found elsewhere.

According to their website, one in four students receive tuition assistance where the average assistance is roughly three quarters of the entire cost.

“It is definitely an expensive program, but the experience you get in that type of environment is life changing,” Henry said. “All the curriculum is hands-on, project-based learning.”

Every Thursday, students research an environmental topic they chose at the beginning of the semester. Henry researched stone crabs and sharks.

“We would go out on a boat and scuba all day, and collect data on stone crab claw removal methods and illegal shark finning,” Henry said.

Following its motto, “Be where your feet are,” the Island

School took students’ phones and all other electronics and the students lived without Internet connection.

“I only had a 15-minute phone call [off of a landline] a week to make to my family, which was difficult to adjust to since I am extremely family-oriented,” Henry said.

Although Henry had many wonderful experiences at the Island School, there were some complications.

“I was well-prepared from an academic perspective to go to the Island School, but a few of my classes did not transfer back to Paly,” Henry said. “I had to take two single-semester courses online to make up for the time away from Paly.”

The Island School also came with challenges that Henry had to overcome as a part of the program.

“It was early morning wake-ups, lots of exercise and hands on work,” Henry said. “There were four expeditions, one being a 48-hour solo on the beach, which I never thought I would be able to do.”

Although the program was only a semester, Henry affirms that the memories and the friends she made during her time there were everlasting.

“They [the connections formed] were extremely real and very strong since we didn’t have any phones or internet,” Henry said. “We were forced to connect and get close and [the other students] all became family so quickly.” v

Text by DIVYA GANDHI and ELLA HWANG