FBRA Blog

Video: 6th Grade Voices

By Elizabeth Douglas / September 28, 2021 / Comments Off on Video: 6th Grade Voices

Three weeks into the start of school, we asked 6th graders to share their impressions of FBRA with us.

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The “Experamid”

By Will Yeiser / September 28, 2021 / Comments Off on The “Experamid”

Will Yeiser, FBRA Executive Director and Co-Founder   The FBRA Experamid is the brainchild of former Girls Outdoor Program Director and founding math teacher Emily Shanblatt, and it is essentially an infographic that communicates our collective purpose here at the French Broad River Academy. We have formally adopted the Experamid framework schoolwide, and if you […]

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Maria Noakes Center Update

By Elizabeth Douglas / September 27, 2021 / Comments Off on Maria Noakes Center Update

We get asked several times each week when the Maria Noakes Outdoor Center will be completed. Unfortunately, COVID 19 created problems with all sorts of manufacturing timelines and construction delays around the world. The good news is that we are almost there. Water has been brought to the building, plumbing roughed in, and the footers […]

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Salamander Adventure Camp 2021

By Elizabeth Douglas / September 27, 2021 / Comments Off on Salamander Adventure Camp 2021

The Salamander Adventure Camp took place from Monday, June 28, 2021 to Friday, July 2, 2021. The purpose of the Salamander Adventure Camp is to expose underserved fourth grade students in our local community to different experiences in the outdoors. The Salamander Adventure Camp provides structure, fun, and adventure to the lives of children. This […]

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Alumni Updates September 2021

By Elizabeth Douglas / September 27, 2021 / Comments Off on Alumni Updates September 2021

In late summer, we invited our alumni to come back to FBRA to join staff for a cookout and some catching up. It was great to reminisce and also find out what a few of our graduates have been up to in high school and college. We are looking to hold more alumni events including […]

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There Are No Grizzlies on the French Broad River

By Felix Dowsley / September 27, 2021 / Comments Off on There Are No Grizzlies on the French Broad River

Felix Dowsley, Boys Program Director   I’m willing to bet that when middle school boys hear the word courage, they picture someone like Davy Crockett or Samuel L. Jackson wrestling a grizzly bear while parachuting from a burning airplane. That, at least, is the male model of courage most often held up for them to […]

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Thoughts from Jen: Curiosity & Compassion

By Elizabeth Douglas / September 27, 2021 / Comments Off on Thoughts from Jen: Curiosity & Compassion

Jen Horschman, FBRA Girls Program Director   At FBRA we build character; it is part of our mission. However, it is one thing to state it and quite another to share the secret sauce, to explain how it’s really done. We know the teenage brain rewires during adolescence, making new synaptic connections all the time. […]

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Thoughts from Will, June 2021

By Will Yeiser / June 21, 2021 / Comments Off on Thoughts from Will, June 2021

Lessons Learned After Operating a School During a Pandemic Will Yeiser, FBRA Co-Founder & Executive Director   WE MADE IT!!!  As the last group of 8th grade students left campus with their families on the evening of June 4th, 2021 after our final graduation event, I finally was able to repeat these words and internalize […]

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Meet Dorrie Sieburg, FBRA Girls’ New Admissions & Communications Director

By Elizabeth Douglas / June 21, 2021 / Comments Off on Meet Dorrie Sieburg, FBRA Girls’ New Admissions & Communications Director

Welcome Dorrie Sieburg to FBRA as the new Admissions and Communications Director for the Girls School. Dorrie’s work and life experience over the last twenty years have pointed her toward FBRA all along the way.  After graduating from Penn State University with a BS in Education, Dorrie worked for the Student Conservation Association and Padilla […]

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Summer at FBRA

By Elizabeth Douglas / June 18, 2021 / Comments Off on Summer at FBRA

Empty, dark classrooms; four-square courts long for bouncing balls; and canoes lined up in storage. Summer at FBRA. However, while students and most staff take a welcome break from algebra and grammar lessons, some folks at FBRA are still hard at work over the summer. Most of what happens in the summer at FBRA focuses […]

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