Farewell to Semester 4

Fall Semester 2011 is an amazing class that will leave an indelible mark in all of our hearts.

In a small community as tightly knit as this, a group can come to know one another so well, and function so smoothly as a team, that it begins to take on a persona and character like a single living being. And this class certainly has its own unique personality! This class, with its composite blend of voices, styles and color, has an irrepressible spirit; a first-rate sense of humor, a delightful lightness of being, and a truly remarkable sense of awareness and caring for one another. Their ability to overcome challenge, to support one another with respect, kindness and compassion, and to work together as a team to accomplish a goal, be it an academic project or a prank, provides a model for human interaction that impresses even the CSG staff, and that is saying a lot.

Although this is our fourth semester at CSG, it is also a series of firsts in many ways. First student from the Lone Star state of Texas, and from the Ocean state of Rhode Island. First school delay due to a hurricane. First ceremonial use of the walking stick “Bolf”, and of naming a walking stick in the first place. First Homecoming Dance. Introduction of mid-day “Turtle Time”, per student request. First appearance of a gorilla suit and a tutu. First time a group has used up a whole two hours of rock climbing, and still wanted more! First use of bicycles during exercise time, another student-driven addition—thanks Emmie! First appearance of dreadlocks—a phenomenon we now know is contagious, spread by shared ideas living in close quarters with teenage girls. First class to take pre-and post science surveys as we begin researching the impact of our science program. First student led Council, with honors going to Doris and Rosie. And finally, the First Parent Forum, an addition we think will come to be invaluable part of our Home Again program —thanks, Ted and Kris! For all of these contributions and more, we thank the fall class of 2011 for all you have given us in continuing to hone and shape the school we all have come to love.

Yes, we will remember the Fall class of 2011, with great admiration and joy. And yet, it is the individual girls that have made the real lasting impression—in our hearts, and in the bedrock of the school. It is these girls who have helped us to hold up a mirror and show us who and what CSG is. The 15 girls of this Fall class are a testament to the power within themselves when given support, opportunity and inspiration. Competent, confident, and knowledgeable, they are laying the groundwork of high standards and examples for future young women to follow. For this, we are forever grateful, and for this, we will always remember you.

~Tara Treichel, Director of Education

Triumphant Girl Literary Journal!

The school literary journal, Triumphant Girl, is officially available! It is a compilation of the creative writing that each girl perfected and presented at our school coffee house. It includes fiction, non-fiction and poetry, with subjects ranging from sense of place, to their connection to the land, to fictional stories about finding a hidden doorway into an alter world in the refrigerator. It is a compilation of all of the student’s hard work this semester in English class. Buy your own copy or a copy for your student!

Go to the school website www.coastalstudiesforgirls.org

Under the 'shop' tab go to the Triumphant Girl Literary Journal link.

~Leah Titcomb, English Faculty

Our Final Days

          As our final week together approaches, we are all feeling the heat – there is so much to do. This week there has been a gamut of final assessments. I took an English, Spanish, and Marine Science exam. I finished my History paper on the Influence of Religion on the Structure and Ideal of Roman Society. I also took a test in math on solving fraction equations. We must finish our Marine Science Research and Prepare for our Exhibition of Learning.

My Marine Science group had taken over 50 water samples for the Little River Bridge. We are in the midst of writing our paper and analyzing data. We are finding that during an incoming tide, the water has an average pH of about 8.1-8.2 and a higher salinity than an outgoing tide. An outgoing tide has a pH of around 7.5 and a lower salinity. Salinity and pH have no correlation to each other or to the depth from which we sampled from. This may be due to the disturbance created in the water from lowering the water sampling, or that the current is so strong that the water is mixed very well. Our goal is to finish the paper this weekend or early next week so we can get going on the PowerPoint Presentation and Poster.

In Leadership, we are preparing work for the Exhibitions of Learning next Friday. We have a self-portrait, personal mission statement, and self-reflection due. The self-reflection is a ten-minute talk or speech and then a five-minute creative showing. Some of us are doing iMovies and others are doing paintings. Each project is very unique. 

Home is on everyone’s mind. While we miss our families, we also don’t want to ever leave each other. My favorite part of CSG is the community. We are all really close and help each other out all the time. We have laughed together, played together, and cried together. It is really nice to know that someone is ALWAYS there for you. It is also different from a regular friendship because we live together so you can’t hide anything. Everyone knows everyone else so well. Thinking about leaving, we are sad because we won’t know what to do when we are not together all the time. Because now, if you need someone to talk to in the middle of the night, they are right there, but when we go home, our best friend isn’t right next to our bed. That is what I’ll miss the most – the friendships. It is just so awesome and I am so glad I have gotten this opportunity!

~Brianne

Making Spanish Food

Two weeks ago we had language weekend where the Spanish and French class were able to try foods of these cultures. I was able to cook some Spanish dishes using my mother's recipes, with the help of some of the other girls, and serve them to the CSG community. I was filled with excitement knowing that I was going to be able to share some of my family traditions with the girls! 

It took me a whole week to plan for these two meals and finally on Friday I was ready to chop, fry and cook vegetables. As I cooked, the kitchen was filled with different smells that traveled throughout the whole house. The cooking crew and I were working away combining, blending and mixing vegetables. There were two people chopping, one putting everything in pots, and I was stirring and frying. We cooked fried plantains, rice, posole, and beans. For dessert, there was ambrosia and machetiadas. I was so glad to share a bit of my cultural food with the rest of the girls, and everyone devoured it.

On Saturday we went to Museum LA and I was able to expand my knowledge on French immigration. I learned that they worked very hard in shoe factories and textile mills in order to put food on the table. All of the people that worked in these kinds of factories were putting their lives at risks because it was easy to get injured or die in the mills. I was able to see the huge machines the workers used; they were at least 6 feet high and 15 feet wide! Going through this museum was mind blowing and it was an unforgettable experience. The whole weekend was about learning from different cultures and adding more to what I had already known and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

~Doris

Thanksgiving

Last Thursday, we had a special CSG Thanksgiving! We had no classes for the day, and the food preparation started early. Before we got up, the turkey was already in the oven, and the rest of the cooking started as soon as breakfast was over. We were assigned cooking groups, and each group had a category of food they were responsible for cooking. There was the starch group, the greens group, two pie groups, and decorations and h’orderves. The Res Life Staff was in charge of the turkey, stuffing, and gravy. I was in the greens group with Rosie and Nell, and we prepared a salad and peas.

Dinner was at about two. We brought up a long table from the basement so we could all eat at the same table and decorated it with a nice tablecloth and flowers. After settling into our seats, we were almost ready to eat when Eliza told us that there was a surprise guest. We all looked towards the door. At first, Kit walked out and most of us assumed it was a joke, but then Gail came in! It was the first time we’ve seen her in weeks, and some of us were so happy we cried. She was feeling better and was even wearing the tutu Franchesca gave her around one leg.

After the meal was done, we had time to talk to our family, and then went out for a campfire at the campground. While we were there, we roasted s'mores and exchanged small gifts we had been working on for the past several days, called our “secret turkeys.” These ranged from personalized storybooks to personalized songs.

By the time we’d finished at the park, we were all exhausted, even though it was only about six. We went back to the farmhouse, packed for our final leadership trip, and finished the night by watching Harry Potter part seven and a half. It was a fantastic Thanksgiving, and one that I will never forget.

~Perri

English Field Trip

            This weekend was our "English Weekend" at CSG. All week we had been perfecting a creative writing piece of our choice.  On Friday night, we held out semester "Coffee House" where we read our pieces aloud to the community. Some people read their poetry, others read non-fiction and fiction stories. Everyone's works was fantastic! I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment after sharing my poem, which I had worked so hard on. Afterwards, we celebrated by having a dance party under a fluorescent disco ball that Leah brought in.

            On Saturday morning, we headed to the Maine Women Writers Collection, which is an endowed library collection of literature from or by women who live in Maine. Some of the books were incredibly old, and it was amazing to see some of the original works by authors we had been reading! We each found our own little nook 

and settled in with different books, reading and exploring the collected works. Then, we went to Wolfe's Neck State Park, where we had a "Maine style barbeque", (red snappers, moxie, and whoopee pies) We ended our weekend by sitting on the rocky coast with our journals, reflecting on how we have grown throughout this semester. 

~Rosie

An Exploration of Culture

This past weekend was languages weekend at CSG.  Entering the farmhouse late Friday afternoon, the spicy aroma of Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Cuban food filled the air.  Doris had contacted her mom for the recipes.  She, Melisa, and Brianne, with the supervision of Maria, slaved away in the kitchen preparing a fabulous meal for us all.  The dining room was dimly lit by strings of white lights, as we all enjoyed tastes from afar.  Doris also prepared us a special dessert of Ambrosia.  After we all helped clean up, it was time to settle in for a film, Reveil, on the history of and the preservation of the Franco-American culture in New England, most specifically in Maine.  After some choice time, we were all off to bed to be ready for the next day’s adventures.

We awoke to more wonderful smells filling the farmhouse, as Doris and Maria were already preparing a breakfast of pumpkin nuggets, another delicious recipe from Cuba.  After filling our bellies, we were off to MuseumLA, in Lewiston.  Our tour guide, Diane, met us at the door and our visit was quickly underway.  Diane molded the tour specifically to our needs.  We went through the former textile mill, seeing all of the equipment that was once used to create beautiful textiles, including the famous Bates Bedspreads.  Diane told us about the working conditions of women and children in the mills in the early nineteen hundreds, and most of the girls were shocked by the details.  We finished our tour with a brief visit to the exhibition about the history of shoe making in the area.

On our return voyage to school, we stopped along the banks of the beautiful Androscoggin River and had our daily Solo.  I was a warm, partly cloudy day.  The girls moved quickly to the shore, hunkering down close to the water, with a couple of the girls spending the solo time in trees overlooking the flowing river.  After 20 minutes we circled up, had a little snack, and once again loaded into the vans for the last leg of our trip home.  Upon our arrival back at the farmhouse, we enjoyed a French themed lunch.  Brenda had prepared us a lovely leek and watercress soup.  Baguettes, cheeses, meats, paté, sparkling lemonade beverages, and fruit were abundant, and quickly devoured by all.  Cookies from France, Belgium, and Quebec rounded out our lunch.  Again, we all helped clean up, and then prepared for our final activity of the weekend.

We all circled up in the dining room to share our families’ immigration stories and anecdotes.  Some families came over on the Mayflower, some even before that, and some girls are immigrants to the U.S. themselves.  We all enjoyed learning more about each other, hearing family stories, and even seeing family photos.  The sharing was wrapped up with a brief discussion, viewing the girls’ journeys to CSG and the formation of their new community here as a new addition to their own stories of immigration and exploration.

~Noel Thibodeau (Spanish and French Teacher)