After School Activities

Each semester, Antilles offers a range of after school activities that are open to students around the island. From science to sports, Minecraft and dance – and everything in between – the purpose of this program is to enhance students’ non-academic skills and given them an outlet for further self-expression.

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Chess Club: Antilles School's Chess Club welcomes all players, veterans and neophytes, to its weekly practices. Apart from the fun of playing the game itself, chess is a great exercise in critical thinking, planning ahead, and concentration. Meetings consist of two distinct parts: theory and practice. Classes begin with theory, in which the coach provides lessons on any of the three stages of a chess game: the opening, the middle game, and the endgame. Students learn how to avoid opening blunders, how to set quick and deadly traps, and how to develop properly in the opening to lead to a good middle game. The middle game focuses on tactics, with additional lessons on strategy for the more advanced players, including the concepts of weak squares, pawn structure and outposts. Student study various mating patterns along with how to win endgame scenarios when only one or none of the major pieces remain on the board. During theory sessions, students also work on scenarios in order to hone their skills on all the previously mentioned aspects of tactics and strategy. In the second half of the meeting, students put theory into practice, as they challenge each other on the chessboard. In addition to weekly meetings, students are encouraged to participate in the scholastic chess tournaments held periodically throughout the school year.

Coastweeks Beach Cleanup is a national initiative founded by the Ocean Conservancy in an effort to bring attention to the world's coasts. Antilles middle and upper school students join forces with local organizations such as the University of the Virgin Islands and the Department of Planning and Natural Resources and head to local beaches and shorelines to pick up litter, promoting the importance of protecting our beautiful Virgin Islands' environment and getting involved to make a difference. Students record each piece of litter collected, and this information is later compiled into a national data base. Scientists use this data as they search for ways to reduce the amount of marine debris that ends up on our beaches and shorelines.

The Empty Bowls Project, which was created by the Imagine Render Group. The basic idea is simple: sixth grade students create handcrafted bowls in art class and learn about poverty in social studies class. Then, family and community guests are invited to join sixth graders and their advisors for a simple meal of soup and bread, and then sharing what they learned about poverty. The meal is provided to students free of charge, and donations are encouraged. All donations received are given to a local charitable organization that supports efforts to feed the homeless and hungry of St. Thomas and/or St. John.

Festival de Canes is an annual student film festival that showcases the work of students in Film as Literature and the Senior Video. Festival de Canes is a play on words of the preeminent international film festival in Cannes, France and our Antilles School mascot, the Hurricanes. Below is an explanation of how the final films come to be.

Students begin this process by completing a “Shot-by-Shot" in-depth analysis of a feature film. Then using a digital copy of the film, they use editing and sound to cut their own trailer for that same feature film (this is called our “Original Trailer"). Using the same raw digital material, the students then re-cut a trailer but re-image the film. “Re-imaged Trailers" attempt to establish relationships and storylines that did not exist in the original feature film – often flipping the genre (romantic comedy into modern horror). Finally, students storyboard their feature film and with student actors reproduce the film as quickly and cheaply as possible – generally this means reducing a two-hour movie down to a two-five minute short film (this is called “Sweding" based on the concept in Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind). In 2012 we introduced student-made “Silent Music Videos". These narrative short films are non-diegetic (the characters cannot hear the music) with a single diegetic shift (the characters can, for a brief moment, give evidence that they hear the music).

In an effort to reach out to the greater island community, four student-led Antilles School organizations, NHS, NJHS, MSSC, and USSC, join forces each December to bring gifts to needy children on St. Thomas. Students may bring gently used items or new gifts to place under the giving tree, displayed in the Henry Kimelman Library, floor 2. Shortly before winter break begins, these gifts, along with any money donated, are distributed to various local agencies, including the St. Thomas Department of Human Services, Nana Baby Home, Family Resource Center, Kidscope, and other charitable organizations serving children in need.

Junior class students hike down this St. John trail to see some of the local plants and animals in their natural environment. On this two-mile descent, students see tree species in the tropical forest biome that they could no longer see in other areas of the Virgin Islands that are more heavily disturbed by human activity. Some individual trees on the trail are centuries old and stand as examples of species that were common in the Caribbean at one time, but are now difficult to find. Since the trail is less traveled than other areas, some rare animals, such as the Bidled Quail Dove are also seen occasionally. This trail runs along the route of one of the first roads in the Danish West Indies, and the ruins of sugar plantations and slave villages which are of great historical significance are seen by students. At the bottom of the trail, students look at some of the marine life on the tidal flats of Reef Bay. Students see several phyla of marine animals in this habitat because the water is shallow and the animals are easy to retrieve and then return to the water.

Seniors collectively select a senior song, then the Film as Literature students organize, storyboard, film, and edit a music video that incorporates the entire senior class. This video is shown at the end of the year at the Traditional Awards Ceremony.

The Senior Class Retreat is a rare day for members of the senior class as they are encouraged to join classmates and their advisors and take a break from the fast-paced action of senior year in order to enjoy a day filled with ocean and beach activities, to share fond memories of high school, to challenge one another to take advantage of the last year of high school, and to share their aspirations and anxieties about life after high school.

Spirit Weeks are co-sponsored each spring and fall by the middle and upper school student councils (MSSC and USSC) to generate enthusiasm, to create a sense of oneness or team, as well as to raise the morale of the student body and faculty. The goal is to get everyone involved - students, teachers, and staff in order to strengthen a sense of unity - Hurricane Spirit. Activities can include a kick-off activity, guest speakers, grade-level poster contests, along with a closing assembly, as well as spirited lunchtime relays, races, and competitions among classes.

Antilles Chapter of the National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society sponsor a food and funds drive to support local charitable organizations in their efforts to provide the St. Thomas community with a Thanksgiving Day meal. All students (ELC, LS, MS, and US) can participate, bringing in canned goods, or monetary donations, to their classroom teacher or advisor.

Theatre at Antilles opens up a world of live communication and performance for students as well as audiences. Creating experiences for all seventh through tenth graders to explore acting, directing, dramatic literature, and stagecraft production broadens students' understanding of performance and presentation. Communication skills form the basis of most of the theatre courses taught. Lifelong interests in performance and production are cultivated and encouraged through a progression of classes, which equip students with discriminating and analytical views and understandings. School theatrical productions average three per year with one devoted to the middle school, one for the upper school, and one which combines both division of the school. From season to season selections offer varieties in genres such as comedy, drama, mystery, as well as musical.

Junior Achievement (JA) is sponsored in partnership with members of the local business community, educators, and volunteers. Antilles School high school students join teams with students from other local high schools to analyze and explore micro-, macro-, personal, and international economics. JA inspires students to develop competitive skills and confidence, connecting them with relevant, hands-on experiences in the realities and opportunities of work and entrepreneurship in the global marketplace.

Black History & Ca

ribbean Culture Fair is sponsored by NHS and was originally conceived and spearheaded by Briana Adams and Jean Ford, Class of 2012 during their freshmen year of high school. One afternoon in February, students in grades 8-12 along with faculty and staff set aside time to celebrate the past and present achievements of African Americans. Each year, the theme for the celebration varies, yet the program always includes storytellers, musicians, re-enactments, biographies of famous African Americans, a student-produced video, poetry recitations, and contests as it brings together our school community to observe the accomplishments of African Americans to American life.