It Starts at Chingachgook

September 12, 2025
Joy and discovery in partnership with nature unite and nurture our learning community. It is so integral to the culture here at Parker that it is written right into our MISSION. As such, the beginning of our school year is full of intentional, naturally immersive events designed to strengthen our school community. Camp Chingachgook has a longstanding history at Parker of providing this foundational experience for our middle schoolers.
Camp Chingachgook is a year-round outdoor center with a beautiful campus nestled directly on the shores of Lake George. This diverse landscape of woods, water, and mountains sets the perfect stage for an overnight bonding adventure. During their time at Chingachgook, Parker students and teachers work to develop leadership skills through team building and outdoor activities such as hiking, shelter-building, archery, and low ropes courses. This is a great opportunity for groups to come together, classes to begin forming cooperative relationships, and new students to become woven into the fabric of the community. Students also gain a sense of independence. After this experience, there are no “new” students at Parker.

As John Sherry (MS Science teacher and 8-year Chingachgook veteran chaperone) explains, “New friendships are definitely formed here. Especially in the 5th grade – there is a huge change pre- and post-Chingachgook. It’s common for kids, in the beginning of the year, to stick pretty close to their grade cohorts. Chingachgook really forces this mingling. Students are in mixed-age teams for activities and games, and their cabins are mixed-grade as well. What you see as a result is that friendships form between the grades at Chingachgook, and that often stands the test of time once we return.”

Over the course of the past two days, students engaged in activities that required new skills and ways of thinking about being in the world and working together. For one student, who bravely admitted to missing their family and asked for help, it was their first time ever sleeping away from home. Still others were anxious about new foods, new peer groups, and the discomfort of cabin life. What was universal, however, was the way in which our students looked out for and encouraged each other through these difficulties.

One outstanding example of this was the openness, courage, and perseverance our students brought to their adventure ropes courses! On Thursday afternoon, 5th & 6th graders took turns tackling the large climbing wall while 7th & 8th graders conquered the high ropes course. During these intense moments of risk-taking, Parker students shone as they dug deeply to work through hardship and encouraged and supported their friends. Every time a scared student returned to the ground, there was a surge of classmates waiting to hug, comfort, and express pride in them. Many students worked through their fears and conquered the courses, learning an incredible amount about how they react in high stress situations, and also what works for and enables them to power through. These are organic experiences that cannot be manufactured in the classroom, but they give our students real world skills in pushing outside their comfort zones, solving problems, and working together.
John Sherry reflected about the importance of moments like these, saying, “The experiences like this that Chingachgook provides puts everybody on a level playing field. When we come here, our students are used to seeing each other in one context – school. However, kids who might be confident in school sometimes get a little more nervous in situations like these. And kids who are not so confident at school sometimes find themselves in their element. Everybody gets a little outside of their comfort zone and, in the process, a little bit more attached to each other. Our community and school year is always better for it when we return.”

We have no doubt our students will be tired tonight. They will also likely be full of complaints about bug bites, cold cabins, and dark midnight trips to use the bathroom. But underneath there will be a quiet and newfound confidence in both themselves and their classmates: Trust in their own ability to do hard things; conviction in their understanding that learning comes in many different forms; and resilience in knowing that they have a community of support to help them make it through.