Redesigning Our Future

By: Jumana Mograbi The focus group walking to their destination in the  Ecological Preserve Bright and early the campers in the Backbone focus group headed out to the Ecological Preserve for their bird catching activity. The campers studied the birds and the sounds which attracted them into the net which they later on set up in the Preserve. The campers then set up an iPod underneath the net which projected bird calls in order to attract them. After a 45 minute wait, a bird flew into the net and went quickly down the slope into the bottom of the net. The campers observed the features and structure, and all got a chance to hold each bird. After the bird was studied and observed, it was released and set free again. We interviewed Alyssa, a camper who participated in the activity about her experience this morning: " What did you think of this activity? " A: "Very interesting, it took a lot of patience to wait for the bird and it took a lot of con...

Summit Camper Has a Passion for Aviation By Emma Sophia Zahra is a rising high school senior from Salisbury, North Carolina who is in the Environmental Education through Theater focus group at camp.  Previously, she has been part of her middle school's Green Team; the Green Team is a recycling program at her school that she says is not taken very seriously by teachers and students. Last fall, things for Zahra changed when she took AP Environmental Science. In the class she learned more about environmental issues and realized that there is a lot of help and change that needs to happen in the world, and she wants to be part of that change. Zahra also has a passion for aviation. Flying is something she has loved for a long time, and just this past year, she got her pilot license for her birthday. Because of her love for flying, she has long dreamed of being an aeronautical engineer. Now that she also pays more acute attention to environmental issues, she struggles with th...