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Nawa Academy in the News

Nawa students go to Peru to help villagers and learn

Greetings from the International Academy in Ollantaytambo, Peru. I flew into Peru expecting a Latin American country like Mexico, I was immediately proven wrong. We took a bus into the heart of the Andes mountains into a village as secluded as possible, which was a three-hour drive on dirt roads. I thought that I had seen the most beautiful places Mother Nature had to offer, but once again I was proven wrong. Driving in the back of a flat-bed truck, ascending the Andes mountains, I could not help but smile at the presence of the majestic mountains. Giant peaks shadowed the muddy road as sheets of rain stung our faces. more ...

A News Cafe: Wide Open' Education

A rustic log cabin is tucked in a meadow, surrounded by majestic oaks and towering pines, secluded by bordering National Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management wilderness. The view from the porch is of the wooded hills that cradle the nearby town of French Gulch and on arrival, visitors are greeted by a friendly, wet-nosed canine named Rowan. The cabin could easily be mistaken for a storybook vacation home and its setting for a mountain Shangri-la, but the cabin is the administrative office for Nawa Academy, and the view from the porch, just a slice of the 556 wooded acres that its students call home.

Dottie Smith: Taking Care of History - Samwel Cave memories

Inspired by my recent story on Samwel Cave, reader Don Avey sent me an email reminescing about his childhood memories at Samwel Cave. It was such an interesting email, I wrote and asked him if it would be okay for me to post excerpts of it in a blog. He said "yes"; here are excerpts for your enjoyment: ... more

High School Students Gain Work Ethics and Leadership Skills Learning Fire Science at Private Boarding School

French Gulch, CA - Students are learning more than just fire behavior and fire fighting at Nawa Academy, a private boarding school located in Northern California that enrolls students who are non-traditional learners and those with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). They are also learning how to work as a team, developing problem solving and leadership skills.

International relations Students experience other countries' customs through academy program By Rob Rogers, Record Searchlight | December 6, 2004

FRENCH GULCH -- For John "Bear" Mahoney, the payoff was getting out and meeting people.

While in China last month, Mahoney was confronted by a teenage student who asked how he felt about China becoming a superpower to rival the United States.

He shrugged and laughed a little. "I was like, 'Fine, I guess,'" he said.

Mahoney, 16, was in Shanghai with 10 of his classmates from the Nawa Academy, or Nawa, a boarding school north of French Gulch. As a member of the school's International Academy, he and his class spent two weeks there studying, traveling and meeting people.

With International Academy, the Nawa students will travel to eight different locales in seven different countries this school year, including Mexico, Russia, the Dominican Republic, Argentina and the Philippines. They've already visited Canada and are at the Yucatan Peninsula in southern Mexico until Dec. 14.

Mahoney's conversation with the Chinese student typifies International Academy's appeal. Rather than traveling just to sightsee, the students from NAWA also meet students and professionals, many times staying with families. It allows them to see a country's culture from a new perspective.

"It's a different kind of learning," said Gwen Arber, a 17-year-old from Boston. "When you learn through experience, there's not the same pressure (you have in public schools)."

That's Nawa's hallmark. The boarding school is built around the idea of experiential education and the idea that some students learn best by doing. Many of the students at Nawa are kids who have struggled in traditional classroom settings.

The journeys act as an extended field trip for participating students. History, social studies, biology and English are taught with an eye toward the students' next trip. They cover a subject in the classroom, read about it in a textbook, and then go see it on the trip.

Many of the students noted how surprising it was to see the country in a book and then experience it in real life.

"(China) was nothing I thought a communist country would be like," Arbor said.

Hearing stories and comments like these reinforce the program's philosophy for the school's administrators.

"It's great what these kids experience -- the fact that they can experience it firsthand," said Steve Galvan, Nawa's director of international programs.

Galvan said much of what makes the program so strong is the group experience. He said many times they have wonderful individual moments, but experiencing the country, people and travel as a group teaches them leadership, compassion and service.

"They support each other; they help each other out," he said.

Every night they are abroad, the students and teachers meet together in "gathering" -- a meeting during which everyone talks about the day's experiences, problems and epiphanies. It helps to distill the day's events as well as build unity within the group.

"It's definitely like a family situation," Arber said.

But with all the highs, many of the students admit there are some lows to traveling all year. Many times, the group gets back from a trip only to leave 36 hours later for the next journey. A few in the group went home to the East Coast for Thanksgiving directly after the China trip. The jet lag was incredible, they said.

"It can get a little overwhelming," Arber said.

With the sometimes short turnaround of back-to-back trips, the students are forced to spend the hours on the bus or plane hitting the books. Even while on location, they can have days that are completely blocked out for study.

"Some days we have all academic days," Mahoney said.

"But it's 10 times better than sitting in a classroom for six hours," said Natalie Ballard, a 17-year-old from Orange County.

Because many of the countries they visit are south of the border, Spanish is a required subject at the school. Students Chris Ferree, 14, and Talea Casey, 16, already speak it fluently. But the language they learn isn't limited to Spanish.

"(Whatever the country is) just being in the culture you learn words every day," Ballard said.

During preparation last week to leave for Mexico, the group was giddy. It was past noon and the students only had one class left until they boarded the bus to head to Sacramento International Airport.

"It's our senior year," Ballard said. "There's nothing better than being able to travel."

Reporter Rob Rogers can be reached at 225-8217 or at rrogers@redding.com

Last Update: 1/4/2010 10:48:21 AM

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