CAP-10 Photo Album

Welcome to the Community Adventure Program class website! To find out what the adventure is all about, Click Here to check out our class photo album.

CAP Post Test Survey

As the quarter comes to a close, I want to get some open and honest
feedback from the 3rd Quarter 2006 CAP class to improve the CAP for
future students. This information is anonymous and will not affect your
grade, but it will be reviewed by the school, the Cottonwood Institute,
and the information gathered from the survey will help us apply for
grants to secure funding for this class to make it accessible to other
high school students. Please click on the survey link below to take the
CAP Post Test Survey.Click here to take survey

Quote for June 7, 2006

“Bits and pieces. Bits and pieces. People. People important to you cross your life everyday, touch it with love and carelessness, and move on. There are people who leave you, and you breathe a sigh of relief and wonder why you ever came into contact with them. There are people who leave you, and you breathe a sigh of remorse and wonder why they had to go away and leave such a gaping hole. Children leave parents; friends leave friends. Acquaintances move on. People change. People grow apart. Enemies hate and move on. Friends love and move on. You think on the many people who have moved into your hazy memory. You look on those presents and wonder. I believe in God’s master plan in lives. He moves people in and out of each other’s lives and each leaves their mark on the other. You find you are made up of bits and pieces of all who ever touched your life, and you are more because of it.” – Unknown

Quote for June 6, 2006

“Some people do not have to search for they find their niche early in life and rest there seemingly contented and resigned.  At times I envy them, but usually I do not understand them…and seldom do they understand me.  I am one of the searchers.  There are, I believe, millions of us.  We are not unhappy, but neither are we completely content.  We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret.  We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand.  We like to walk along the beach.  We are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power and unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty.  We like the forests, mountains, deserts, hidden rivers and lovely cities as well.  Our sadness with the ones we love is perhaps as great a joy as we know, unless it is to share our laughter.  We searchers are ambitious only for life itself and for anything beautiful it can provide.  Most of all we want to love and be loved, to live in a relationship that will not impede our wanderings and prevent our search.  We do not want to prove or compete for love.  This passage is for the wanderers, dreamers, and lovers who dare not ask of life everything that is good and beautiful.” – Unknown

Final Reflection Paper, by Brittany Salley-Raines

Weekend Overnights: This aspect of the class was by far my favorite. Being able to get away from school and home life stresses was truly a treat. There was much preparation for these trips, including menu planning, packing, and of course lesson plans that Ford had to make. Many of the skills we learned I was already familiar with, but nevertheless it was great to get a refresher. I am glad that I was also able to learn some new skills. For example: the lean to debris shelter, cordage, animal tracking, rescue scenarios, and a little bit about edible plants. Highlights of the two trips were harvesting dandelions and eating the delicious salad, blind drum stalk, capture the flag, friction fire, and the time at night when we all just sat around the fire and talked, sang, and relaxed. I really appreciate everyone who was in the class and the contributions they all made. For the most part I felt that there was a very positive and cooperative attitude throughout the entire group. This made both trips so much more enjoyable. Not only did I learn technical skills like fire building, bear hangs, shelters, tracking, etc… I also practiced the social skills needed to create a functioning and happy group. I will of course use all of the skills I learned again. All of the technical skills will be put to excellent use this summer when I go camping, and I am sure that the social skills will continue to be helpful to me whenever I am in a group of people. I will also be able to build upon the social skills and expand what I already know.

Action Project: I thought our Action Project was a huge success. Everyone got along so nicely and we all accomplished quite a lot. Before we did this project I was not aware that all storm drains led to Boulder creek, that washing your car could be harmful, that dog poop was polluting the creek, and that Boulder creek is very heavily loaded with bacteria. These are all things I probably wouldn’t have known if it weren’t for our Action Project. Our projects included: stenciling and decaling storm drains, a creek clean up, and education at the Farmer’s Market; not to mention the two articles that were written about our class. I think the best part about the Actions Project, and something that only CAP can provides, is that it gives high school students a voice. I do believe that we can create positive change just as effectively as an adult can. Others might be skeptical in the beginning, but it has been my experience that adults and peers alike end up admiring you for taking an active role in the community.

CAP As a Whole: I have learned so much from my experiences with CAP. I am more confident now that I can make change and contributions to society, even if I am in high school. The Action Project really helped me to develop this mindset. It also taught me that I can have fun while doing something that helps my community out. I am thankful that I have the opportunity to be a part of CAP because it isn’t something that every student in Boulder has the opportunity to do. It makes me feel so good that I know how to survive if I were ever to be lost in the wilderness and that I know how to reduce my footprint while camping. Not everyone knows these skills. I am also really proud of myself and the class, as well as our accomplishments with the Action Project. I kind of feel like we are representing all of our peers when we go out to places like the Farmer’s Market and interact and educate our fellow members of the community.

Ecological Footprint: To minimize my ecological footprint I am currently doing the following things: recycling, being vegetarian, using environmentally safe household cleaners, buying organic and local whenever possible, reuse plastic bags, and buy recycled aluminum foil. This is all that I can think of right now. I also do some things that aren’t too great for the environment. The biggest one is that I definitely use a lot of disposable coffee cups and throw them away. This is definitely something that I need to stop doing and a step I should take to reducing my ecological footprint. I also like to take long showers. Not only does this result in high water bills, but it also wastes water. I could also stop doing this. Composting is also something that I want to start doing at my house.

Final Reflection Paper, By Noah Gershon

The purpose of high school should be to prepare for the future. It should be to ensure a stable future for the students and a better future for the world in general. One of the teachers here at New Vista says part of why he teaches is so that he can live in a world of aware people who make the world a more beautiful place. The current system is set up towards creating more of a career based future for students rather than a better future for the world, although I think the latter is just as important, if not more. Seen in that light, a class like CAP, that gives awareness to students concerning the preciousness of our natural surroundings, and connects us back to our roots in the environment, is one of the most vital classes that a student can take. Until I took this class, my goal in high school was my future, and now it’s everyone’s. Now, whenever I take a class I will be integrating the information I learn in it towards how it can be used in creating a better world.

The technological world we live in can be very consuming. With modern electricity, transportation, communication, all the conveniences brought about by technology, plus having to take care of meaningless careers and appointments, humans get distracted from what matters in life. The beauty of a blue sky with white clouds is not noticed, the oxygen given by the plant life is not appreciated, and nature is cast aside. People naturally become embittered by living in that kind of a world every day. Along with the bitterness comes selfishness and a disregard for life. This is the state of millions, if not billions of humans. This is why I love camping so much. Some people think camping is a chore, but for me it’s the best vacation possible. It is such a relief not to have to worry about any of that worldly stuff. Camping is a state of simply living, with absolutely nothing to distract from that. If more people could be taught to value this simple experience, like is taught in CAP, then I think we would be living in a much different world. There wouldn’t be the problem of governments selling off persevered forest land and throwing out environmental standards because that kind of government wouldn’t be tolerated. I already loved camping before I took CAP, but this class expanded my love and appreciation for nature. I now know how to camp in a much more natural manner than I used to, which can make the experience even better. I’ve learned what to do with fire remains so that it benefits the surroundings, how to create several shelters out of the surroundings, to read maps with more skill, and a bunch of other stuff.

The technological dependence of America and other countries is frightening. As was pointed out, for all of human existence humans have been directly subject to the laws of nature. It is only in the last few generations that humans have broken away from that and become dependant on devices that protect them from nature’s laws. Many skills that our ancestors possessed are no longer known because no one felt the need to remember them. There is a part of me that is scared when I realize that in a survival situation without gas heat, running water, and a food store one block away, I could be in trouble. Now that I’ve learned things like how to start a fire from scratch, how to create shelters that will keep me warm, how to find a source of water, how to be prepared for rescue, how to accurately find the cardinal directions, even how to hunt animals without alerting them, I’ve gained a sense of confidence. I feel like I’ve taken a step away from the ties that bond me to the craziness of the technological world.

I’ve never liked acting out of guilt. Whenever I do something I want it to be for a reason I understand or because I feel it’s right. When I act out of guilt I don’t feel satisfied with anything I accomplish, because it is all in an attempt to alleviate the guilt. The problem is that I’ve never had any motivation for reducing my ecological footprint except guilt. I’ve always cared somewhat, but I guess I never believed that my actions could make enough of a difference, so I didn’t waste my time. It’s made me curious what motivates the great activists. They didn’t start out famous leaders trying to change the world. What was it that led them to that path? I’m not sure but I think I’m starting to gain some understanding. I don’t think it’s so much that they think they can make a difference, as that they don’t have any other choice. It’s either you live for the world or you live against it and they live for it with a passion. The result is, is that they do make a difference. At some point during this class, part because of the thinking the action project subjected me to, part because of all the quotes, and part because of the discussions, I started to care less whether or not I could make a difference, and simply wanted to try. It is still satisfying to know that a difference is being made. For that, I mostly have to trust that it is. In the class we talked about the ripple effect. Whatever I say or do is part of the worlds unfolding even if I don’t notice it at first or ever. Because I want that unfolding to happen in a positive manner then I need to make my actions as purposeful and positive as I can.

CAP is a great class not because of the cool material it teaches, but because it can change students. It has inspired me, changed my ideals, increased my awareness of nature, and brought to my attention my potential, on top of being fun and teaching some of the coolest material. A class that can accomplish that doesn’t deserve to lack budgeting. I consider the things I’ve gained from this class to probably be among the most important stuff I will ever learn at high school, or anywhere for that matter. One last thing that this class has given me is that I am now so much more open to the idea of helping the world. I used to have a slight aversion from becoming like what I considered a hippie, shouting for world peace and environmental standards. I didn’t understand the motives of people who do stuff like that so I avoided it. To understand, I needed to change myself before I tried to change the world. I now have the tools to learn what it takes to help the world along. I’ve become open to information about activists, or about people that make a difference and how that is accomplished. I’ve started on a path that I’ll be on for the rest of my life.

CAP Photo Album, 4th Quarter 2006

Welcome to the Community Adventure Program class website! To find out what the adventure is all about, Click Here to check out our class photo album.