TaborTalk Blog

Tabor students are in the Bahamas at the Gerace Research Center in San Salvador for the last week of the year working on the coral nursery they began last spring. In March 2019, we constructed two coral trees: pvc pipes connected to look like branches of a tree where we hung coral fragments of Elkhorn and Staghorn coral we found on the seafloor while snorkeling. It is our hope that the fragments will remain alive and grow large enough so that we can attach them to the seafloor and grow out, restoring areas of damaged reef in the Bahamas. We will maintain and multiply our coral trees over two weeks each year, in December and in March, and hope to "plant" our first new reef restoration in a year or two. Unfortunately, strong storms are our enemy in this effort as we discovered one of our two trees from 2019 destroyed when we arrived.  Read on to learn about the efforts of the December team who arrived for a week of field research on December 28.

DAY 1

We have successfully arrived in Nassau at the comfortable hour of 11:30 PM. Our students immediately jumped into the hotel pool for a refreshing dip. We will begin early tomorrow with breakfast and then off to San Salvador Island.

DAY 2

We arrived in San Salvador a little late due to delays.  We are learning that 'island time' is 'island time'.  We went for a dip in the aquamarine tropical waters, had a nice dinner, and spent the evening setting up our lab, going over the mission goals, and playing mad gab for a while.

^{Enjoy this story about Emma’s trip to the U.K. to perform a show called “Lucky Me” with her fellow Tabor cast members.}

There is something so special about getting the chance to travel with your friends, especially when you get the opportunity to go to the U.K. for a week to perform a show that you wrote with an amazing cast.

Recently Rick DaSilva ’89, Associate Director of the Center for International Students, along with faculty Wes and MacKenzie Chaput, Kelly and Nate Meleo ’95, and Bert Nascimento traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark with Tabor juniors and seniors for a week of home stays, site seeing, and classroom learning at Rysensteen Gymnasium.

Each day Rick prompted the students with questions about their visit to Denmark and here are some of their thoughts:

This year, during the month of April, Tabor will once again partake in an exchange with Ellesmere College in England, as actors from this year’s fall drama head over the Atlantic over spring break to tour with our show, Lucky Me, across the United Kingdom.

^{Written by Deb Cohen P’22 (mother of Hailey Cohen ’22)}

Two junior students traded places between Marion and Beijing this fall:  Amber Harris, from Tabor will attend the school Ricky Ren has joined us from, RDFZ Xishan School in Beijing!

Peter Cheung, a Tabor student from Hong Kong, was chosen as Tabor’s CIEE Tokyo 2018 Idemitsu Scholar

Please enjoy this last post from our Service Trip in Thailand. It seems our students may have found some perspective along the way that may help them to lead more grateful and happy lives. Not a bad take away!

This past spring break I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Copenhagen, Denmark, with the Tabor’s Rysensteen Gymnasium Exchange. I first became excited about this trip when Mr. DaSilva spoke about the school exchange in an all-school meeting last spring. After he finished his presentation, I immediately texted my mom and asked if I could go on the trip.

I applied for the Idemitsu Scholarship on a whim, never dreaming I’d actually get it. Even after the “Congratulations!” email from Mr. Downes and a celebratory phone call with my dad, I didn’t really believe it was happening. It didn’t hit me at any point during the months of online prep, or when I was packing and printing my itinerary, or during the 20-something hours of flying. Reality only sank in after I saw the first Japanese ad in the airport and realized I had no idea what I was looking at. All of the excitement and nerves that I should have been able to process and come to terms with over the previous six months overwhelmed me instantly, and I was torn between the emotions of “Oh my gosh, I’m in Japan!” and “Dear Lord, I’m in Japan. By myself. For a month.”

We asked our International Students to share some of their favorite holidays from their homelands as we in America celebrate some of ours this season. Enjoy their stories of tradition, family, food and community this holiday season: any themes sound familiar? Happy Holidays to all!

Today we are honored to welcome twenty-eight faculty members from Beijing National Day School, a public high school located in Beijing, China. Steve Downes has arranged this collaboration.