About Our Pioneers
At EXPLO at St. Mark’s, we understand what it means to be 9 and 10 years old, and make sure we’re responsive to their needs. Since students this age often react emotionally to the world around them, we’ve created a structured environment they excel in, complete with a schedule of supervised check-ins, courses, and activities.
Our Students Talk
Gathering on the Quad one afternoon, a group of Pioneers got together to talk about the staff, the courses, the trips, the friends — and everything else they love about Explo:
Meet the students in our Pioneer Roundtable.
A Supportive Staff
Pioneers are under constant supervision at EXPLO at St. Mark's. Our staff makes sure that they wake up on-time in the morning, take daily showers, brush their teeth, eat properly (only one dessert allowed!), and get to where they need to go throughout the day. Choice is a big part of our program, and our staff helps Pioneers make appropriate choices about how they spend their time. We gently push Pioneers to try new things — like Japanese cooking or beginning tennis — because we know that it helps students build character when they find success outside of their normal comfort zones.
They’re Always Learning... And We’re Always Teaching
For Pioneers, learning is sponge-like. They absorb as much from their social interactions at EXPLO at St. Mark’s — such as learning to respect “body boundaries” and how to work with others in a group — as they do from our academic courses and activities. In the classroom, Pioneers are obsessed with the "how" of the world.
They like to understand how things work and are related — how to code a webpage, how to run a business, how to craft pottery with your hands — so we tailor Pioneer courses and activities to emphasize hands-on demonstrations, labs, and structured play. Such as digging up dinosaur bones, setting up business stands... and playing games of tag to demonstrate concepts like biomagnification.
Creating a Safe Environment
Because Pioneer students are more adult-oriented than older students, they tend to be comfortable expressing their emotional and physical needs to our staff and let us help them without embarrassment. The result is that we are able to create a safe and nurturing environment at EXPLO that allows Pioneers to expand their range of interests, develop a sense of independence, and have fun discovering the joy of learning.
