优蜜视频鈥檚 annual camp concluded powerfully at Camp Copneconic in Fenton, Michigan! Throughout the week, we watched all 79 campers 鈥� including 23 leadership campers 鈥� get to know themselves and each other in gentle yet profound ways. As ever, our leadership campers demonstrated incredible talents to connect with younger campers, support one another and be positive role models to all. All campers were empathetic, compassionate, sensitive and full of personality. It was an honor for the entire staff to watch the growth that transpired in each child.

theme this year is passion. In a named Found Poetry, campers created a poem using reading materials focused on passion. It was a collaborative effort that culminated in a beautiful and powerful passage:

鈥淭his close relationship, it felt very natural,

An absolute thunderbolt merged with part of your being

My life had changed

Practice; how to play anew

Grand devotion, imported in my life

Such a devastating event, a slow burn, a sensitivity that resonates

Obsessively thought about

Devoted to this love story.

Fire, that鈥檚 me!鈥�

In addition to , campers also spent time each day practicing psychosynthesis 鈥� a guided imagery meditation followed by in-depth discussion. helps one to focus, concentrate, be in tune with their senses, and be more aware of the present moment.

Yunasa also integrates specialized learning with traditional camp activities, so campers get a full experience of a weeklong sleep-away camp. Throughout the week, campers balance their day by participating in waterfront activities such as kayaking, sailing, tubing, fishing and riding in pontoons. Some land-based activities are also hugely popular such as archery, horseback riding, zip-lining and other rope courses.

Yunasa was a fun-filled week packed with exploration, friendships, growth and passion. Thank you to all campers, counselors, Fellows and staff for making it yet another amazing and memorable week. Have a great year ahead! We look forward to more summer fun in 2020!

the entire Yunasa Michigan photo album. to be the first to know when Yunasa 2020 dates and application information.

At a point in the past, in the middle of an unusually busy year of educational change as a high school teacher and administrator, I recall hearing (and being motivated by) this phrase: 鈥淲ithout teachers there are no other professions.鈥� Ah, I thought 鈥� that鈥檚 why I must keep doing what I鈥檓 doing. Teaching is, without a doubt, about improving life chances.

Now, as Program Manager at 优蜜视频, where聽I help shape the Academy program, I think similarly and differently. Today, as we mark National Teacher Appreciation Day, we honor our faculty of teachers who improve the life-chances of our students, but who also:

• Inspire our students, by creating incredible classes; classes not found in a traditional school environment. Moreover, Academy classes emerge from each teacher鈥檚 interests, expertise and current research. Where else would you get: Paleozoology? Marine Biodiversity? Logic Detectives? Brain Science? Microbial Ecology? Debating on a Global Stage: International Relations & Justice? Literary Ladies of Americana: A Paean to the Female Pen? Microbiology for Kindergartners? The Study of Star Wars: A Hero鈥檚 Journey? Mindfulness for Gifted Tweens & Teens?
• Mentor by sharing their stories, their journeys, by listening and being a friend. Academy classes are not just about the content or the process but about where these interests might take you and why and how.
• Lead by example: our teachers are patient, curious and share the thrill of learning, just as they enable Academy students to imagine a future self. Our teachers also acknowledge their younger selves in our students. They lead by example and they have the magical ability to connect with our youngsters
• LOVE what they do 鈥搒o much so, they find time as researchers, students, teachers, parents, computer scientists, consultants, N4P workers, actors, artists, film-makers, volunteers, animal curators, professors, administrators 鈥� to come to Academy and work with us 鈥� and then, THEY thank us!

And, so, a roll call to all of our Academy faculty, who teach, who teach and then sub, who offer mini-lectures, who sub some more, who provide expertise for Genius Days, who source and bring in extra learning resources to ignite their curriculum, who travel long distances each week, who accept all children with all of their needs (and always with a smile on their face), who return time after time with new classes and new reflections on how to improve and who work with 优蜜视频, with the resources we have, to offer your families the best service we can.

As Mark Twain said, “It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others.”

Today, we thank 优蜜视频鈥檚 Academy teachers and friends for engaging in the most noble of professions and for helping shape future professions 鈥� whatever they might be.

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A British import, Louise Hindle graduated from the University of Manchester with a B.A. Honors Degree in English Literature and Language, completed her post-graduate teacher training at The University of Cambridge, and has recently completed her dissertation in Educational Leadership and Innovation with the University of Warwick. Louise has 20 years of experience in education as a high school literature teacher, lead teacher, administrator, adviser, and consultant. She is also the parent of three fun and active school-aged children. She loves working at 优蜜视频 because she is constantly learning and reflecting in order to meet the varied and complex needs of these children, who she finds to be confident and vulnerable in equal measure but always ready to learn and thirsty for more. In her free time, she likes to read with her children, hike, walk, and jog with her badly behaved dog.