Bobcat Stories

Dr. Jessie Barrie was recently featured on an episode of “Leaders of Enchantment,” a podcast that profiles the stories of influential leaders, including people in technology, sports, and education. Host Doug Campbell visited Bosque School last spring and then got to know our passionate, thoughtful, and articulate head of school in 57 minutes of lively conversation. 

Dr. Barrie discussed experiences from her early life growing up in Toronto, her love of horseback riding, and how she came to choose Outdoor Education as her career focus. Her work sent her all over the world, running adventure trips from the Rockies to Fiji before she found her way to leadership roles in independent schools in California and, eventually, of course, Albuquerque, where she has built a life over the last 19 years that has made the best of Albuquerque’s natural beauty and family-friendly environment.  

She talked about the two meanings of the Bosque School motto of Challenging Education, which is a description of both the school’s rigorous college preparatory curriculum and also the way the school challenges the conventions and traditions of education, seeking to be nimble and responsive to student needs and the changing world they will enter as adults.

Her enthusiasm for being an innovator came through in an exchange about the three successful non-profits that were piloted and incubated at Bosque School. One is the Horizons New Mexico program that supports academic services for public school students throughout the state. The Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP) is a cooperation between the Bosque Wildlife Science program and the University of New Mexico Department of Biology. This last year, 700 non-Bosque students worked with our students and teachers in authentic research and hands-on applied field science in the BEMP program. This is the only science education that some students in Title 1 schools have access to. Lastly, she discussed the Sophia Center for Professional Development, which provides opportunities for all New Mexico educators to share in high-quality professional development.

A guest from an earlier episode, New Mexico United Founder and CEO Peter Trevisani, described the goal of the “Leaders of Enchantment” podcast as “giving our next generation of New Mexicans the blueprint for being the next best versions of themselves.”  We are proud of Dr. Barrie for sharing Bosque School with such an exciting new audience. 

 

Listen to the podcast in its entirety.