Two students taking a selfie at Cheley

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Overnight Q&A with Centaurus CAP

A Q&A! In early October, the students from the Centaurus High School CAP class spent two beautiful days in the mountains at Cheley Outpost. They made fires, cooked a feast, went on a night hike, learned about fire ecology, and did a service project. Q&A (question and answer) with the students: Q:What was the most… Read more »

Ranger Barrientos shows off his nature journal

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CHS Nature Journals with Ranger Barrientos

Escrito en español más abajo. Check out more photos here! Written by CI Instructor Jessie Colin. On one of the hottest days of the year, ten Centaurus High School students, two Cottonwood Institute instructors, and one Centaurus teacher set out to the well-shaded Anne U. White trail in Boulder. Once there, we all met Ranger… Read more »

Kira Changemakers

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Alumni Spotlight: Kira Gilliland and the Impact of CAP Class

Escrito en español más abajo. Written by Cottonwood Institute alum Kira Gilliland. Cottonwood Institute’s flagship program, the Community Adventure Program (CAP), has been at Centaurus High School in Lafayette, CO since 2017. More recently, Cottonwood created Changemakers, a high school leadership program for alumni of our Boulder County programs. The Changemakers program gives about ten… Read more »

CHS water testing marshall mesa

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Centaurus gathers Marshall Mesa fire stream data

For their April field day with Cottonwood Institute, Centaurus High School students tested the water quality of Coal Creek above and below the Marshall Mesa fire site. Written by CAP Instructor Erin Angel. Check out more photos here! Escrito en español más abajo. Water pollution is on the minds of the Centaurus High School CAP… Read more »

CHS winter field day

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Caption This! Centaurus Winter Field Day

Centaurus High School held a caption contest with photos from their winter field day – scroll down to see! Post written by field instructor Camille Zwaan, and captions written by the students. Escrito en español más abajo Centaurus High School’s CAP Class set out on their winter field day trip on Wednesday, February 9th to… Read more »

Crawfish!

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Centaurus: Fish Stories/ Historias de Pesca

Written by CAP Instructor Erin Angel (Escrito en español más abajo) What is the saying: even a bad day of fishing beats a good day of work? Well, we had a great day of fishing, which surely beats just about anything. At the beginning of the semester the students of the Centaurus High School class… Read more »

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Feeling Lucky: Centaurus’ Biking Field Trip

Written by CAP Instructor Erin Angel (Escrito en español más abajo) The Centaurus High School CAP class partnered with Lucky to Ride for our September Field Day. Feeling actually lucky to ride, 13 intrepid humans hailing from seven different countries came together for a joyful day of mountain biking and building community. We’ll leave it… Read more »

Centaurus CAP Class Garden Action Project

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Centaurus Students Cap Semester with Garden Project

In this long, long school year full of challenges, what I was looking forward to most was teaching this group of students at Centaurus High School. I saw the class list at the beginning of the school year and recognized some amazing returning students and a class that was well-balanced between English language learners and… Read more »

CI Happy Hour Beer Tasting

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Celebrating our partners at the 2021 CI Happy Hour!

“Awesome things happen when you get awesome people together.” -Ford Church If there were a guiding philosophy that underlies everything we do here at Cottonwood Institute, that might just be it; from students to instructors and partners to donors, this past year has only reinforced that CI’s strength truly lies in its people. So when… Read more »

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Centaurus Students Fight Powerlessness by Creating Change

So much has happened to high school students this year. During a time in life where they are supposed to be seeking out new opportunities and finding themselves, their wings have been clipped and they are stuck in the nest, disengaged from the world around them. So much change is happening in the world that… Read more »