Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Upcoming Events and News

• Virtual Event - Thu., December 05, 2024 7:00pm (MST) - get more information!
• Virtual Event - Tue., January 28, 2025 7:00pm (MST) - get more information!
• Virtual Event - Tue., February 18, 2025 7:00pm (MST) - get more information!
• Virtual Event - Thu., March 13, 2025 7:00pm (MDT) - get more information!

• Fountain Valley School’s “Decision 2024” Elective Prepares Students for Election Day and Beyond - 11/04/2024
  Fountain Valley School's "Decision 2024" elective educates high school students on the electoral process as well as the important role they will play as the youngest generation of voters.
• FVS Delegation Participates in Life-Changing Round Square International Conference in Bogota, Colombia - 10/24/2024
  In the fall of 2024, Fountain Valley the only Round Square partner school in Colorado sent a delegation of five students and two faculty to Bogot, Colombia for ...morean International Conference centered on reflecting on one's roots, learning from the past, and paving the path toward a better future. hide
• FVS Partners with Colorado League to Host First-Ever Mountain Bike Race on a School Campus in the Front Range - 09/18/2024
  Through a partnership with the Colorado High School Cycling League (Colorado League), Fountain Valley School (FVS) is pleased to host the inaugural Lazy B Ranch Rally high school mountain bike ...morerace from Friday, September 20, through Sunday, September 22, 2024. hide
• FVS Sophomore Shines on the International Stage Alongside Colorado Springs Youth Symphony - 07/15/2024
  In the summer of 2024, one Fountain Valley School (FVS) sophomore Mauricio V. '27 of Pueblo completed a weeks-long international tour alongside the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony, the ...moreflagship ensemble of The Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Association (CSYSA). hide
• Alpinist Jamie Logan '65 Celebrates Debut of Independent Documentary Film, "Jamie" - 07/01/2024
  In May of 2024, Fountain Valley School celebrated one of its notable alumni legendary alpinist Jamie Logan '65 on campus with an exclusive screening of the short film ...moreJamie. hide
• Rising Junior Earns Prestigious Silver Award from the Girl Scouts of the USA - 06/17/2024
  In spring of 2024, FVS's own Sofa D.D. '26 joined a very small percentage of Cadettes nationwide when she received the Girl Scouts' Silver Award in recognition of her outstanding ...moreleadership, dedication, and service to the community. hide
• Global Scholar Diploma Projects Delve Deep Into Students' Chosen Fields of Interest - 05/14/2024
  Eight seniors from the FVS Class of 2024 Ella B., Naomi E., Molly F., Kaleb G., Greta K., Grizz M., Trayee R., and Annie W. completed Global Scholar ...moreor STEM Diploma Projects during the 2023-24 school year. hide
• An Inside Look at 2024 Senior Capstone Presentations: Part 3 - 05/10/2024
  Riho K.'s Senior Capstone project on Game Design and Sound Engineering Through Everyday Objects consisted of designing the interactive narrative game, "A Yearlong Journey at Mountain Rally School of Ohio." ...moreSet in a high school setting, each player's decisions determine how their senior year will pan out. Riho's creativity stretched far as she added original details to the game, such as sound effects "made with the program called Specdrums, which can turn any color into sound," she explains. hide
• An Inside Look at 2024 Senior Capstone Presentations: Part 2 - 05/09/2024
  Throughout her Senior Capstone, COVID-19's Impact on Social-Emotional Development, Lauren C. explored the impact of external stressors, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, on the social-emotional development of infants and toddlers. "My ...morefindings revealed significant setbacks in language, social communication, fine motor skills, and social-emotional competencies among children born during the pandemic," said Lauren, who spent the semester examining disruptions to early childhood education, caregiver dynamics, and support service access due to COVID-19. hide
• An Inside Look at 2024 Senior Capstone Presentations: Part 1 - 05/08/2024
  Will G. and Tanner M. collaborated on the Senior Capstone titled Road to Rock Stardom: Making Modern Music, as both worked diligently throughout the semester to achieve milestone goals in ...morethe music world, including writing lyrics, composing guitar riffs, and recording original audio. hide
• FVS Celebrates National Poetry Month with City-Wide "Athenaea" Poetry Competition for High School Students - 04/22/2024
  Parents, students, teachers, and the 6th Pikes Peak Region Poet Laureate Ashley Cornelius gathered in the Hacienda living room at Fountain Valley School on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, for an ...moreintimate poetry reading meant to celebrate not only National Poetry Month but also the hard work of each contributor in this year's city-wide "Athenaea" poetry competition. hide
• FVS Thespians Present Winter Musical, "Matilda" - 02/28/2024
  The cast and crew of Fountain Valley School's 2024 winter musical, "Matilda," performed before a packed house in the Performing Arts Center each evening from Thursday, February 22 through Saturday, ...moreFebruary 24, 2024. This outstanding performance had FVS critics raving, "This was a fabulous production! Bravo FVS students and faculty for your talent, energy, skill, and passion. I was deeply impressed!" hide
• Living Off the Land: Sustainability in Academics at FVS - 02/20/2024
  Since 1930, Fountain Valley School has utilized its sprawling campus as a "living laboratory." Through a partnership between the School's faculty and in-house land management and grounds crews, FVS's new ...morefreshman curriculum aims to foster one-of-a-kind learning experiences for ninth-grade students at home on its 1,100-acre Prairie. hide
• Grant Monies Take Students Lightyears From Campus - 01/22/2024
  Thanks to a generous grant from the Lightner Sams Foundation, science classes at Fountain Valley School have gotten a whole lot brighter over the past several months! Using funds from ...morethe grant, the School purchased two telescopes and a portable 5" Newtonian reflector, along with soft cases, a solar filter, and a Wi-Fi module, for detailed viewing of planets, asteroids, and comets in our solar system, and deep-sky objects like galaxies and nebulae. hide
• Food Rescue Program Promotes Community Partnership and Environmental Sustainability - 01/04/2024
  Founded by a graduating senior as part of a Capstone project in 2020, Fountain Valley Schools Food Rescue Program promotes sustainability among students and faculty while also benefiting the local ...morenonprofit organization known as Connections 4 Life. Students grades 9 through 12 gather after lunch once weekly to package, label, and deliver leftovers from the School Dining Hall to Connection 4 Life volunteers and employees, without whom the organization's Thursday Fresh Food Pantry would cease to exist. hide
• Malia S. '24 Commits to the LIU Women's Equestrian Team - 11/11/2023
  After securing a remarkable high school record in English Riding throughout her four years at Fountain Valley School (FVS) in Colorado Springs, Colo., Malia S. '24, a young and accomplished ...morerider, has committed to joining the Division 1 Equestrian Team at Long Island University (LIU). hide
• Jeffrey Brabec, Ph.D. '14: Carving His Own Destiny - 11/10/2023
  In his application to FVS, Jeffrey Brabec '14 said he wanted to be a writer and college professor, and his mom wrote that his academic weakness was in math. Could ...morethe then 13-year-old Jeff who struggled in math have ever imagined his future self as a Ph.D. neuroscientist? In his junior year at FVS, Jeff began to enjoy science. "I think college and grad school would have worked themselves out," says Jeff, "but I [underwent] a lot of educational and emotional growth at Fountain Valley. I had experiences there that I still talk about to this day and rely on in times of uncertainty. I truly think I would not be where I am today if I hadn't had the opportunity to attend Fountain Valley." hide
• Nuin-Tara Key ’99: A Visionary Pioneer at the Forefront of Climate Change - 11/10/2023
  Her mother named her after a character in the book, "A Far Off Place," a young woman with exceptional strength and selflessness. While Nuin-Tara Key '99 would be too modest ...moreto acknowledge that the name suits her, her professional accomplishments creating and implementing public policies that impact the climate crisis affirm her mother's prescience. "I am optimistic that it is fully within our capacities to do what we need to do to address the climate crisis and to really drive the change that we need," says Nuin-Tara. hide
• FVS Celebrates 23rd Annual Unity Day: A School-wide Event Focused on Inclusion, Listening, and Diversity - 10/30/2023
  Each year, Fountain Valley School, which is home to students representing approximately 24 countries and 29 states along with a diverse array of backgrounds, hosts a Unity Day to celebrate ...moreits community's various cultures and customs and to help students gain a deeper understanding of differences in race, class and gender. hide
• FVS's Western Immersion Program: Inspiring A Deeper Connection to the Land and Community - 10/15/2023
  In the fall of 2023, Fountain Valley's Western Immersion Program celebrated its 27th anniversary. A true demonstration of learning beyond the classroom, the program takes place at FVS's remote Mountain ...moreCampus located at the foot of Colorad's Collegiate Peaks and includes three days of hands-on learning in the sciences, history, art and literature, as well as community-building activities. All lessons are designed to help students explore the intricate connections between the land and its people. hide
• Author Dave Philipps '96 Presents at All-School - 02/01/2023
  While assigned summer reading may be a familiar-though perhaps begrudgingly necessary-summertime activity, it also serves as an anchor into classroom concepts that often drift away across the leisurely months of ...moresummer vacation. In the spirit of creating a sense of solidarity within our broader community, this year FVS instituted its first-ever community-wide summer read. All members of the faculty and student body read "Wild Horse Country" a non-fiction publication written by FVS alumnus, Dave Philipps `96.
  While much of Philipps` work focuses on the human impact of war, "Wild Horse Country" recounts the history of wild horses in the United States. The book outlines the presence of wild horses in the U.S. in great detail. It begins with their earliest ancestor-Hyracotherium, which lived about 55-45 million years ago-then continues on to the "myth" of the mustang found scattered throughout tales of the Wild West, then to the modern dilemma of wild horse relocation and overpopulation. For a community nestled amid sprawling prairie land that extends to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains-with a history deeply rooted in ranching and an active ranching community that manages over sixty horses-many of the tales contained within Wild Horse Country feel as though they could have taken place here on campus.In fact, the stories felt so visceral to those enjoying the summer read from the prairie-where our own horses could be observed silhouetted against the mountain skyline-it seemed more than likely that Philipps` book might have had its origins right here.
  Philipps, who has remained an active member of the FVS community since his graduation, joined us on campus at the beginning of the school year to present on his book. He spoke about his work as a journalist and offered some sage wisdom from one FVS graduate to the future graduates filling Lewis Perry Jr. Chapel. During his visit, students and faculty alike had the opportunity to partake in a Q&A with Philipps. When asked whether his time at Fountain Valley in any way influenced or inspired him to write Wild Horse Country, Philipps noted that, while it wasn`t his time at FVS itself that spurred the questions that led to the book, his time at FVS has influenced every part of his life since he graduated:My time at FVS was the most influential thing that ever happened to me, and not a week goes by that I don`t think about it. I guess it did [influence my book], because so much of FVS focused on the West that it made me forever interested in that subject."-David Philipps `96
  While FVS might not have been directly causative in the inception of Wild Horse Country, the chain of events that led to the fascinating and intricately detailed final product grants us an appreciation for the genuine curiosity that inspired the book perhaps even reminding us of what stories might be out there waiting for anyone willing to ask enough questions.Wild Horse Country began with Philipps` own determination to design a job comprised entirely of "field trips" to places that he wanted to go, "to poke around in stuff [he] had no business poking around in." Philipps made it his mission to come up with his own stories, so when he saw an announcement for a government wild horse adoption day in Canyon City, his curiosity was piqued, and he went to cover the story. Upon his arrival, Philipps said he, "witnessed big, government corrals filled with horses but there were only maybe six adopters." And it was with the answer to his question, what do they do with the rest of them, that "Wild Horse Country" first began.Philipps was fascinated by the idea that somewhere out there, there were government ranches filled with wild horses. But wild horses, Philipps noted, are "too far out there" to write about for the Gazette. The story remained in the back of his mind for about five years, until he received a one-year fellowship to begin working on his book. In its entirety, "Wild Horse Country" took about four years to complete.For Philipps, this was an opportunity to do something different. It was a break from his usual niche of writing about the military, and it offered a number of adventures that took him into some of the most remote parts of the country. An outdoor enthusiast, Philipps said that this was part of his motivation to write the book. He, "knew that [he] would get to go to some of the most beautiful places in the West, and places that [he] otherwise might not have reason to go to." Within his book, Philipps recounts his experiences of witnessing a helicopter round-up, searching the badlands for Hyracotherium jaw bones, and touring an active ranch that has been owned and operated by the same family for generations.His research unearthed a slew of American folk figures, including Wild Horse Annie-whose advocacy laid the groundwork for the laws that govern the treatment of wild horses and burros to this day-as well as Frank Litts-the first known wild-horse rights advocate-who repeatedly attempted to destroy a horsemeat canning factory in his efforts to protect the animals he loved. But although "Wild Horse Country" details numerous stories about mustangs and the American West, Philipps noted, "the most interesting thing [he] learned [during his research] was that the romantic myth that the wild horse was the partner of the cowboy was completely wrong. There had been a war going on between cowboys and wild horses for 150 years."During his All-School presentation, Philipps remarked on how, in the case of the wild horse, history created myth, myth created law, and law created a perverse reality that begs the question, "Why are we keeping thousands of wild animals in captivity at an insane expense in order to preserve something that is already wild and free?"Dave Philipps posing with his former English Teacher Dave Reynolds and current FVS students.When asked how he felt about being back at FVS to discuss his book, freshly read by the community, Philipps replied:I get to come back probably about once a year, and it`s always deeply emotional for me. This place is deeply unchanged. The heart of this community of learning and teaching and friendship is still here, and I still get choked up about it. It seems silly, but if you grow up in a place, it never loosens its grip on you, and it seizes me every time I come back."Philipps currently works as a journalist for the New York Times, and he has twice been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his work. He received his first award for national reporting in 2014 for his three-day series, "Other Than Honorable," which ran in the Colorado Springs Gazette and examined the treatment of injured American soldiers being discharged without military benefits. In 2022, Philipps, alongside a team of reporters, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for a series that exposed how United States military airstrikes in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan caused thousands of civilian deaths that had never been publicly reported. hide
• Major Accolades for FVS Science Student - 05/02/2022
  Fountain Valley School congratulates Tony T. `23 on his outstanding performance at the Pikes Peak Regional Science and Engineering Fair held on February 26, 2022 and the Colorado State Science ...moreand Engineering Fair held on April 7-8, 2022. hide
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