Wednesday, September 28, 2011

School residential program up and running

Community School hosts ski athletes and Chinese students


By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

Four of the new students at the new Community School Residence Hall in Warm Springs take a break from their studies last weekend. From left are Zou Minghao, Zheng Kaixing, advisor Kristen Monahan, Connor Smith and Cheng Minrun. Photo by Willy Cook

Zheng Kaixing said he's never seen real snow before. He'll get his chance later this year as a student at the Community School in Sun Valley.

Zheng is one of eight new residential program students. He and three others are from China, while the other four are quite familiar with snow and are here to further their athletic ambitions through the Sun Valley Ski Academy.

Planning for the residential program started last year. This summer, the Community School leased the old Bald Mountain Inn building in Warm Springs to provide dormitory-style living for its residential students. The eight students now live at the school's Residence Hall, along with four adult advisors, and attend classes at the Community School.

The Ski Academy students are also spending some of their time training with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, which partnered with the Community School earlier this year to found the academy.

Head of School David Holmes said it's a "great start" for the new residential program. He's hoping for 20-25 students next year, 30-35 the following year and eventually to accommodate 50 students.

"Students from afar has been something we've wanted to do at our school and this is our first big step in that direction," Holmes said. "This is a great start and we've learned a lot of what a residential school should be. I'm really proud of the students and the advisors for making this work.

"It's so heartwarming to see how our residential students have become part of the community. Our students from China bring something new to our school, our community and our valley."

Holmes described Zheng, who goes by the nickname "Terry," as a "math whiz."

Zheng, who comes from southern China near Hong Kong, is enrolled as a junior and wants to become an engineer. He said he learned about the Community School residential program while searching the Internet to find a place to study abroad.

"I wanted to find a better education, so I chose America," he said.

At the Community School, Zheng is studying math, physics, English, writing and English as a second language.

He said he occasionally misses home, but enjoys living at the Residence Hall with the other students and the advisors.

"I've never seen it snow," he said. "I'm going to learn to ski this winter. I think I can do it."

Other students from China are Cheng Minrun, Peng Yu and Zou Minghao. All three are juniors.

Jessie Knori, a 12th -grader from Jackson, Wyo., said she signed up for the residential program to take advantage of the Nordic training available through the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation.

"I decided to come up because I wanted to take my skiing to a new level and I wasn't able to do that in Jackson," said Knori, who has skied competitively for three years and has Olympic aspirations. "This area is more skier-friendly. The people here really enjoy Nordic skiing and really help them out."

Knori said she feels at home in the Sun Valley area and enjoys staying at the Residence Hall.

"It's a great group of kids forming it," she said. "So far, it's a nice adjustment. I love this school. I went to the Jackson Hole Community School, so this is a really easy transition."

Other Ski Academy students enrolled in the residential program are Perry Boyle, a 9th-grader from Darien, Conn., Connor Smith, an 11th-grader from Boise, and Margaret Pope, a 12th-grader from McCall.

Jessica Wasilewski, director of residential life at the Residence Hall, said the students stay busy when not in school or doing homework, going on frequent outings and receiving other students and parents as guests.

"We keep them busy on the weekends and other students are welcome to join us," she said. "It's more like a group family situation rather than an institutional situation. Right now they're all living together, eating together and doing chores together. It's been great. It works out really well. The kids get along great.

"They're just like every other Community School student, other than they don't go home at night."

Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com




About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged:

  • Spam
  • Ones violating this site's commenting policy
  • Clearly unrelated
  • Personal attacks on others
Comments should not be flagged for:
  • Disagreeing with the content
  • Being in a dispute with the commenter

Popular Comment Threads



 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.