Charlie Mark is a part-time student at alternative school LightHouse Holyoke. She loves being in nature and dreams of being a writer one day. Charlie participated in Eagle Eye’s hands-on learning and stewardship programs with her school the past two years and this year, completed our week-long Teen Internship.
Our Teen Internship program gives teens an opportunity to camp for a week, disconnect from personal technology, learn hands-on outdoor skills, practice sustainable and low-impact living, and build independence and self-confidence.
Charlie worked on projects alongside our college interns, including trail stewardship, using a sawmill to make lumber, natural art, organic vegetable gardening, and plant-based camp cooking. She participated in self-reflection, journaling, and discussion around her personal experience with nature and community.
Below is her reflection on her Teen Internship experience.
I have been waiting since last year to come to this internship. Usually throughout day-to-day life I stumble upon perfect little moments, like a breath of calm or a funny joke, just something to look back on and smile. These perfect moments come about once or twice a day on good weeks and less so on bad ones. Looking back at this past week trying to figure out what to keep with me forever, I seem to only remember one or two moments a day that weren’t perfect. It was little things, like eating together every evening, to big things like a hemlock tree that is hundreds of years old, that made this week so perfect. That’s what I’ll be talking home with me, memories of this beautiful place. I’ll bring home this way of taking a step back from the stress of technology and just seeing the world. Eagle Eye has let me live a few stress-free days of being in nature, for which I will always be grateful.
