Charter

Hollis at the mentorship luncheon

I slipped out of staff meeting with a quick apology to the Department chair, threw on my backpack, and marched out of the building. No time to waste - I had somewhere to be. There was a 15-year-old kid on the Vineyard expecting to have lunch with me. 

For the past several months, I've been mentoring a high school student named Hollis. He came to us through the mentorship program at his school, the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School. Hollis is the youngest intern I've ever taken, but he's become a valuable member of the team. He's extremely good at picking out and identifying marine larvae. Every Wednesday when he steps off the ferry, we catch up about life for a little bit and then settle in at the microscopes. Using glass pipets, we sort baby clams, snails, and sea urchins from the mass of copepods in each sample. I sit right next to Hollis at the microscope while we work and have wide-ranging conversations about everything from his pet hamsters to music to finding your place in the world to how animals survive in the Arctic Ocean. 

Hollis drew a "cool octopus" in his thank-
you card to me. 

The culmination of this year's mentorship program was a luncheon at the school. Charter, as the students call it, is a very unique school. In fact, the campus itself looks more like a nature preserve than a publicly-funded institution. During the luncheon, we ate "upcycled" finger foods at a long outdoor table surrounded by trees. The students had written thank-you cards and made wildflower bouquets for their mentors. When we stepped inside to escape the rain, I felt like I was in a library - every square inch of the school's hallways were covered in bookshelves. Art on the bathroom walls read "Your value is not based on your productivity." Charter is a place where students don't just learn math and geography. They learn to become themselves. 

The best part of this whole story is that my mentorship of Hollis is not over. He's planning to volunteer in the lab over the summer, and we're both really excited for him to come back! Other lab members will continue to sort samples in the meantime, so we might actually get to do some data analysis instead of just sample sorting this summer. When I mentioned analysis to Hollis, he really lit up! I really appreciate that Hollis is so eager to try new things and learn as much as he can. 

I'm glad I was able to be there for Hollis at the luncheon, and I look forward to working with him over the summer. He's an awesome student!