Below are testimonials that describe student experiences at Spring Street. 

Fall, 2019 Cascades Backpack Reflection from a 7th Grade Student: "On the Monday morning of the backpacking trip, waiting for the ferry, you feel like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered. But when you step onto the boat, just for a millisecond, you start knowing that maybe you can do the hike. 

You know it again, when you see the white snow blanketing your tent in a misty swell of mountain air. You know by the sizzle of clear blue rain meeting the hot orange fire. By river water rushing on cold clean stone, and the taste of a berry picked from the bush. 

Those berries hide under dewy leaves, and quiet voices around you ask, can we taste them? 

As if to answer, a small blue sphere falls to your feet. You put it in your mouth. You whisper, thank you. 

Hard things can be good. You know this from the feel of being at the top of the world, when you see tiny zig-zagging lines going from mountain to forest to hill to boulder, and the boulder you’re standing on is home. 

Waiting to do something scary is almost harder than just busting out and doing the hard thing. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is cry. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is not cry. Your comfort zone is an invisible bubble around you, and keeps you from touching the things that make you scared. Stepping out of it can be like getting a bucket of ice water dumped on your head. It’s shocking and scary, but it is refreshing. It wakes you up. And when you do get back into your bubble, it's a little bigger."

Video #1: Aiyana O'Prussack (Emerging 11th grade student)

Video #2: Ava Smith (Emerging 11th grade student)

Video #3: Elian Chan (Emerging 12th grade international dorm student)