Learning to lead:Memorial Middle School students take on educational adventure

COW ISLAND/SOUTH PORTLAND — On Thursday, Amber Escobedowinkle was not at her computer, in front of the television, or any other place she might ordinarily spend a spring vacation afternoon. Instead, the South Portland seventh-grader was several dozen feet up in the air, atop a zip line staring down at a vast expanse in front of her, with a line of screaming students behind her.

“Everyone was freaking out because of how high it was,” she recalled, moments later, back on earth. “But once you get on you know there’s no turning back, so you just go with it and it turns out to be pretty fun.”

Escobedowinkle was one of 15 Memorial Middle School students who spent last week on 26-acre Cow Island in Casco Bay, at an adventure-based leadership seminar hosted by Ripple Effect, nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting young people to the natural world around them.

“Kids are so plugged in these days, the whole idea in getting them out here is that it does get them out of that rut,” explained Ripples Youth Program Director Leah McDonald.

“More kids than ever are just sitting at home on the computer, so it’s our job just to get them out finding sea urchins, doing artwork and, really, just playing together,” said Ripple’s executive director, Anna Marie Klein Christie.

Although Ripple Effect has been around for 10 years, this is the first season South Portland students have participated in the school program, and it begins with a six-week community service project. At Memorial, the students began learning to work together under Ripple guides by creating a community garden.

Ripple also customizes each five-session orientation leading up to the expedition, with elements based on each school’s specific needs, whether it be team-building, learning to become pro-active, or anti-bullying.

Then the school program moves to Cow Island in the fall and spring, and to the White Mountains during the winter, to learn wilderness and conservation skills, alongside the fun and games.

Ripple Effect targets student who may face alienation in their school community, but have the potential to make positive change. Like Portland’s King Middle School, where the waitlist has grown to 85 students, Memorial was selected due to high poverty rates coupled with the challenges of living in a highly diverse neighborhood. The program also focuses on seventh-graders, said Klein Christie, “because that’s the time, about halfway through seventh grade when kids are making critical choices about their goals, and about their peer groups, that will affect their rest of their lives.”

“Inspiration is the key to transformation,” said the organization’s lead guide and island manager, Toby Arnold. “We are constantly working to create an atmosphere where kids can be moved and touched and inspired, because this is a safe place. I think it’s even safer here than the environment many kids come from in terms of their emotional safety in their homes and schools. Being secure allows them to learn and create.”

Although it costs nearly $1,000 to put each student through the program, students pay only $50 – and even that is based on need.

“Because we have such a large scholarship program, there is a real, rich diversity of kids, from all backgrounds here. It’s not just the kids who can afford it,” said Klein Christie. “And, because our programs have such diversity, and because of the skill level of our guides, we’ve actually been able to grow even during the recession thanks to a wonderful donor base.

“Of course, the needs have grown exponentially in that time, so we feel privileged to be able to provide those opportunities,” she said. “But when parents send their kids out here, it not just about playing all day. They learn leadership skills, and about island life, and how gardens work and how to work together in team to achieve a common goal.”

Interestingly, the students seem to get that, and revel in it.

“We’ve been learning about leadership and how to take charge,” explained Zachary Baker, adding, “It’s not about being bossy or anything, it’s basically about helping others to achieve goals.

“I think in my career, in the future when I’m an adult and a video game designer, I’ll be able to help my coworkers do tasks that would not be able to complete on their own, because of what I’ve learned here about helping others,” Baker said.

“We’ve been learning how to work together as a team and how to come up with new ideas to get things done together,” said Serena McKenzie, citing a group project aimed at identifying sea life around the island’s shore.

“If we can learn to understand how other people think about things, if we can understand how others look at things, it can help with the whole team,” she said, adding that building that kind of empathy should help her as an aspiring actress. 

MacKenzie and her twin sister, Amber, also point to one of the more challenging team projects – climbing a rock wall while blindfolded. That task is just as hard on the ground as it is on the wall, said Serena.

“It’s really, really fun,” she explained. “It’s about helping each other, but when someone us depending on you, you really learn to think about what you say before you say it.”

“Here, you actually get to experience things that you wouldn’t in school,” Amber said. “In school, we don’t really focus on helping people, we kind of are more focused on our own work.”

“Yeah, we don’t really do a lot of leadership stuff in school,” agreed Brandon George, who looks forward to a career as a truck driver, like his father. “I don’t think I’d really learn stuff like this anywhere else, where you’re not just told how to do something, but you actually get to do it.”

“And, even if your not interested in doing some of the things, like the zip line and the rock wall, others will help you,” continued Amber, “even if all you want to do is get in the harness and get a foot off the ground.

“If you help people to achieve their goals like that, they’ll help others, and that kind of makes a big chain that goes on and on.”