Summer Programming Abounds at CRMS

If you stroll onto the CRMS campus during the summer months, you will notice a flurry of activity. While our own student population takes a two month break from their studies, our campus becomes home to several different groups including (HS)2, Andover’s ACE Scholars and Rocky Mountain Blacksmiths.

The third year (HS)2 is a pilot program run in collaboration with the Aspen Science Center and provides disadvantaged city youth intensive classes in math and science. The 41 students spend five weeks living and learning on our campus. Likewise, select students from Phillips Academy Andover, a Boston-area private school, spend a month and a half at CRMS in an intensive program of mathematics, chemistry and expository writing, and spend their afternoons receiving a taste of our unique active programs.

Carbondale, CO Picked as Top Ten Town for Sportsmen

From the Post Independent (June 18, 2009)...

For the second time in less than a year, Carbondale has made it onto the cover of a national magazine touting the wonderful aspects of the place.

The June-July edition of Outdoor Life magazine, which caters to hunters, fishers and other sporting types, gave Carbondale an “A” across the board in its report card gauging such things as “Fishable Species,” “Huntable Species,” “public land access,” “trophy potential” and “gun laws.”

The town also was highlighted on the cover, and in an inside story, in Adventure magazine's August 2008 issue, in an article entitled “Where to Live & Play Now: The 50 Next Great Towns.”

Please click here for the full story.

CRMS Graduation Class of 2009!

Congratulations Seniors. Good luck in all your future endeavors. We will miss you! For information and photos on the big day, please click here.

CRMS Academic and Community Underclassman Awards Presented Tonight

CRMS will present their annual underclassman awards to students who have shown exemplary behavior in the community and classroom at the final formal dinner of the school year. Faculty have preselected the students to be honored, and they will be announced this evening. Good luck and congratulations!

The New & Improved www.crms.com is Now Live

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Our Seniors Are Back on Campus After Visiting All Corners of the World

Each Colorado Rocky Mountain senior organizes and carries out an independent, three-week project away from school and home, in which he or she works under a master or employer. Upon their return to campus, seniors present their real-world learning experiences to peers, family, and a faculty jury. Both the quality of the project completed and an oral presentation (a key opportunity to exhibit public-speaking skills) are evaluated, as is a reflective essay designed to help students chronicle their expectations and learning.

Planning the apprenticeship can be an exciting and thought-provoking process. Students are encouraged to begin exploring apprenticeship options at the end of their junior year, making the program one of the hallmark experiences of their transition to the new challenges and responsibilities of preparing to graduate. Students often identify unexplored passions or compelling service opportunities, or they may design a program that intensifies current interests. Recent senior projects include:

• Helping to launch a biodiesel fuel operation
• Working in a South African orphanage
• Learning organic farming techniques
• Working in the Washington studio of a Sunday morning political talk show
• Working as a dental assistant in Micronesia
• Tagging and tracking sea turtles
• Writing computer programs that allowed dolphins to communicate with researchers through “touch plates”

Welcome back class of 2009!

CRMS Kayaker, Michael Palmer, Headed to the Freestyle World Championships this Summer in Switzerland

Hometown boy makes good at kayak team trials in Glenwood

Junior set to travel to worlds in Europe

Jeff Caspersen
Glenwood Springs correspondent
Aspen, CO Colorado,

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Just about everyone had a hug or handshake for Michael Palmer as he scaled the embankment leading up from the Glenwood Springs Whitewater Park.

The 18-year-old Glenwood Springs resident had more than a few fans on hand at the U.S. Freestyle Kayak Team Trials on Sunday, fans the hometown hero delighted by notching a third-place finish in the junior men division.

Palmer stuck a points-heavy first run that carried him to a bronze finish. He finished behind first-place Jason Craig and second-place Dane Jackson. All three junior standouts will represent the United States at the Aug. 31 through Sept. 6 ICF Freestyle World Championships in Thun, Switzerland.

Punching his ticket at his hometown water park only sweetened Palmer’s accomplishment.

“It’s my home wave,” a grinning Palmer said. “It’s the best wave in the country. It’s great. It’s my hometown.”

Even those who weren’t hometowners backed Palmer. The kayaking community being the tight-knit circle it is, the junior phenom knows anybody who’s anybody in the kayaking world.

And quite a few of those anybodies took up residence at his family’s Glenwood home over the weekend.

“Everyone is staying at my house,” Palmer said with a chuckle. “The kayaking community’s a real tight-knit community. I know everyone here. It’s a great atmosphere.”

Palmer will be making his second straight appearance at a world-level competition. He qualified for last year’s World Cup, which was also held in Thun.

“It’s back to Europe again,” Palmer said. “It’s the same river, so I know what to practice, what to work on. I know what I’m going to need to win there.”

Before that, though, Palmer will put in loads of time polishing his arsenal of moves on his home feature. From there, whatever happens, happens.

“I want to do well,” he said. “I’d say I want to get top three or win or all that, but I just want to get my ride. In any competition, I want to get my ride. If I can get my ride perfect and people beat me, there’s nothing I could do.”

Little brother joins in on the fun

Michael wasn’t the only Palmer to strut his stuff on the wildly popular Glenwood Springs Whitewater Park wave Sunday afternoon. His little brother, Paul, won the cadet division, reserved for riders 14 and under.

While cadet paddlers weren’t in the running for spots at the world championships, 14-year-old Paul didn’t seem all that bummed.

“I just wanted to have fun,” he said, echoing advice delivered by his older brother. “He just said to have fun. It’s no big deal.”

While he won’t have the chance to compete in Thun, Paul plans on making the trip to Switzerland to watch his brother compete.

“I’m going this year, for sure,” he said.