community

Turn off your alarm, smile at the sun rising over majestic Mt. Sopris, grab your CRMS hoodie, and head over to the Bar Fork for a savory breakfast to start your morning. Choose from eggs fresh from the campus chickens or organic fruit and housemade granola, and wake up around a table with friends in the Dining Hall before walking over to the Jossman Building for your first class of the day.

Whether you are sharing your opinion on the enlightening article you read last night for World Geography, actively listening to your diverse classmates’ perspectives in World Literature, speaking only Spanish while refining your language skills, or learning from your passionate teachers in one of your humanities classes, you will develop an understanding of other cultures, deepen your global awareness, and develop critical thinking skills in a participatory learning environment.

Confused about something that your teacher mentioned in class? Unclear about an assignment that’s due? Use this 30-minute Student Meeting Block (available several mornings a week) to meet with teachers to ask questions or just to say hello. Don’t have questions that day? You can grab a yellow bike from our bike-sharing program and ride over to the Pargiter Library to study or get a head start on homework. Two mornings a week you will also be working with your Household Job team caring for our campus spaces.

Paint a watercolor of Mt. Sopris near the Art Adobe building, capture a photograph of wildflowers from the garden, fire a pottery mug in the Clay Center, or learn the electric guitar in the Weber Music Building. You’ll be surprised at the passions you’ll find when you try new things and appreciate your creative side when learning during Art Survey and art elective courses several times a week.

Bring your laptop and graphing calculator, and get ready to problem solve. Through practicing and learning math equations, modeling, and concepts through math exercises, you’ll become a confident math student who will be prepared not only for your science electives here as well as your college courses beyond CRMS.

Yes- the food here really IS good! Our chef uses vegetables from our garden and locally sourced food to serve yummy and healthy lunch options. Are you gluten, vegan, or dairy-free? We’ve got you covered! Be sure to pour yourself a glass of lemonade into one of the student-made cups from the glass-blowing studio. Outside you can sit and laugh with friends at a picnic table, catch up on the morning events, then have fun playing a game of spike ball on the Quad during this lunchtime break.

Once a week, you’ll convene with the entire school community in the historic Barn for the weekly All-School Meeting. After the opening musical performance, you’ll reflect on the moving speech the senior just gave (senior speeches are a tradition!), then listen to club announcements from student leaders (you should join that club!). Maybe you’ll rejoice at the first snow during the Gratitude part of the meeting, or cheer on the meeting’s recipient of the Braj Award (passed on weekly to recognize a contributing community member). You’ll also attend a weekly Advisory Meeting to choose academic classes, active, outdoor trips, and talk about whatever’s on your mind with your Advisor and group. Juniors and seniors also meet once a week with Betsy, our College Counselor, to plan their college applications and Senior Projects.

You’ll love the hands-on approach to learning in our project-based science classes where you will learn scientific principles and apply them to lab and fieldwork while working collaboratively in groups. One day you may be wearing river waders and studying the environment in the Crystal River; the next could involve exploring the local geological landscape. Whether you want to pursue science, medicine, or engineering in college or are just curious about the world, you’ll be inspired by teachers whose lessons will continue into outdoor trips and Interim.

After classes end for the day, grab a healthy snack in the Bar Fork, pack away your bookbag, and change into your Active gear!

It’s time to be Active! Head to either your sport team practice, instructional sport, or service crew and engage in the community. With rivers and trails just steps off our beautiful mountain campus you’ll be biking, running, hiking, and paddling outside in nature, and having fun with friends while building new skills. If today is your service crew, enjoy giving back to the community while performing meaningful work in the bike shop, garden, glassblowing studio, blacksmithing forge, or contributing to our social justice literary magazine.

Call home! This is a great time of day between Active and dinner to give your family a call and let them know how great things are going here at CRMS.

After Active, you’re ready for dinner! At the Dining Hall in the Bar Fork, it will be hard for you to choose from one of the chef’s hearty homemade soups, healthy salad options from the garden, or nourishing hot entrees. Take at least two freshly baked cookies. Converse with friends and teachers while making your study plans for the evening. Don’t forget to look at the Weekend Activities Board to start thinking about on and off-campus weekend fun. Once a month you’ll get dressed up for Formal Dinner with the entire school community in the Dining Hall and sit with your Advisory Group.

If you are a day student, you are leaving campus for the evening to study at home. If you are a boarding student, you are back in your dorm for a nightly dorm check-in meeting with your dorm parent and dorm mates, followed by study time. You can write that paper that is due for English, prepare for your math quiz, and do group study work for science, with a dorm parent there for support. For extra learning assistance, you can head to the Pargiter Library.

Tonight your dorm might be celebrating your dorm mate’s birthday with brownies that your dorm parent baked just for the occasion! You also might choose to get some laundry done before “brush & flush” and lights out for the night. Before you go to sleep, this is a perfect time to hang out and bond with your dorm mates, clean and organize your room, plan for tomorrow, or get some extra studying done.

Lights out! It’s time for bed. Get some sleep - tomorrow is another day of learning, exploring, making, creating, friendship, and adventure.