TaborTalk Blog

Twenty Spanish students are becoming Seawolves! Our visitors, who arrived one week ago, are part of what is becoming an every other year exchange between Tabor and a school in Spain located in Begues, near Barcelona. They are with us for two weeks.

This being our second exchange with this same school, it is fun to see the Tabor students who traveled to Spain on the last trip welcome cousins and friends of friends they met in 2012.

Our day families have been gracious enough to act as host families to the students showing them American family life, while their Tabor student partners are adopting these students into their every activity. The school has planned trips to Boston and Providence, and yesterday they visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum to learn about our local history. Some fun social time has been planned as well with a pizza and movie night, skating and more. So far, so good!

Not only have they come at the most beautiful time of the year, but also there is so much happening at Tabor right now for our guests to enjoy. Theatre, music and dance all this week. Holderness Day on Saturday with a pep rally on Friday night. Then on Sunday night and Monday, they will have an opportunity to develop some lifelong leadership skills at our Graboys Leadership Symposium (more later on that!). These kids have come at just the best possible time to be a Seawolf!

We hope they are enjoying Tabor, and we look forward to our students chance to explore Spanish culture when they arrive in Begues in June!

Not body fat! I am talking vegetable oil.

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.

At the beginning of school each year, we have the opportunity to hear from faculty who were awarded sabbaticals or significant professional development opportunities. There were three such presentations this year from Kevin Arnfield, Rick DaSilva '89, and Mark Howland.

Each spring, students have the opportunity to apply for a travel grant from Tabor Academy to support their interest in language or cultural study. The grant is made possible through the generosity of The Shattuck Family, who created this opportunity ten years ago based on their gratitude for their son’s experiences and awakening to the wider world through his study of foreign languages at Tabor.

Tomorrow, on September 14, on our first full weekend of school, Tabor students will hit the streets to make their mark on our local community.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSXDrVOqXwU&w=560&h=315]

Robert Al-Chokhachy '88 in the Arctic, conducting field research

As a research biologist with the US Geological Survey, Robert said he felt very fortunate to be working in the Arctic. He is working with colleagues from Utah State University to conduct research with Arctic charr ~ 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle in a field camp. He explains, "Much of this work is trying to understand how climate, among other factors, influences aquatic ecosystems in the Arctic." He is pictured above pulling a sled full of equipment to a field site. He shared this photo, too, of the beautiful views of mountains and wildlife.

Some reindeer feeding on lichen.

Today is Community Service Day!

Director of Service Learning, Lauren Corliss, pictured above, has accomplished a tremendous feat! There are over 400 students out in the wider Southcoast community right now cleaning up beaches and roadways, assisting the elderly, tutoring children, planting and creating gardens, painting and beautifying parks, repairing sports equipment and facilities for our local rec department, delivering clothes to the needy, sorting books for a used book drive at the local library, helping at the recycling center, visiting the elderly, even baking and delivering cookies! Lauren uncovered options, sold our volunteer service aptitudes to agency's, and helped us to arrange the transportation to all these sites. No small feat!

Each advisor group was asked to come up with a project and work together to accomplish their goals today. Additionally, our international student community, in celebration of International Week, recruited our newly enrolled international students half a world away to join our community's service efforts today and share with us what they have accomplished.

Of course, the students are excited to do something different on a beautiful spring day, but chances are it will mean much more than an alternative to class. Learning how to help, knowing you can, doing good just because you can, these are empowering life lessons. They are important lessons for all of us.

I encourage you to join us today and comment here or to add photos to our Tabor Academy Alumni Facebook page of the ways you work to serve your community. Tabor alumni are incredibly generous with their talents and it is an important part of the legacy and reach of our school.

Here's to the collective good Tabor Academy can spread worldwide!

Happy Service Day!

Gifts to Give is one of our service partners year-round. They collect used toys and household items and recondition them so that they maybe given with pride to needy families. They incorporate many volunteers, adults and children alike, in their joyful mission of service and recycling.