An orange, bagel, craisins, water, tarp, mat, pencil, paper, and bug net.

These were the only materials Nico Simons was allowed to use for the next 48 hours. And to make it worse, the NASH senior wasn’t in a familiar location. No, he was on a tiny Bahamian island — by himself.

“Surprisingly, I wasn’t aware of the hunger. I was more aware of the sun beating down on me, the mosquitos, and the boredom I was experiencing,” Simons told The Uproar. “After I built my fort that I was going to sleep in, I had nothing to do. So I wrote letters for hours.”

For Simons, the challenge was one of many during his 100-day study at the Island School in Eleuthera.

This particular two-day excursion, which was ultimately a part of a week-long kayaking adventure, served as an academic unit.

“In terms of ‘normal school,’ I had a math, English, social studies, and marine biology class,” Simons said, “but I never took a single test.”

“The goal of the Island School is more so to find solutions to problems and apply your studies to your own life. To show that we learned the information, we wrote a bunch of papers and participated in research projects,” he added. “The main difference between school at NA and school on the island is that I never found myself just memorizing information so that I could pass a test. The whole experience was hands-on.”

The Island School in Eleuthera focuses on connecting students and world-renowned researchers in a unique setting that fosters a unifying vision: environmental responsibility and sustainability. Through an application process consisting of a video, essay, and recommendation letters, 50 students are selected for the once-in-a-lifetime educational opportunity.

“Throughout the application process, the school isn’t looking at grades or academics. They look for who you are as a person and what you have accomplished in your community,” Simons said.

The current NASH senior was accepted into the program for the spring session of 2020, but due to the pandemic, his trip was canceled. Wanting to experience the Island School in full swing, he opted to postpone until his senior year.

“COVID caused the group to split apart. Normally, all 50 students hang out together, but during the fall 2020 session, they were split up into groups of ten,” Simons said.

When he arrived a year later, the 100-mile-long by 3-mile-wide island became his playground. He said he lived by the motto “work hard, play hard,” as his class schedule of six days a week led to near-constant activity. For Simons and his classmates, two hours of built-in free time after class consisted of exploring the island, jumping off cliffs, swimming under caves, visiting the nearby towns, and biking exotic trails.

Surprisingly, for a place with no access to technology, fun was limitless on Eleuthera. Friend interaction was constant.

“Funny enough, the first day we got our phones back, nobody wanted to look at them,” Simons said. “I never realized just how big and heavy my phone is. It just distracts you from real life and what’s actually in front of you.”

Without his phone, and the distractions that ensue from it, Simons was able to crank out research projects with his small group and research leaders. Among the many that they performed, their final project excited him the most.

“The issue that we were trying to solve was the overabundance of algae in the coral reefs. When the algae is not being fed upon, it will overgrow, causing it to smother the coral,” Simons said. ”So the researcher thought of the idea to use Black Spined Sea Urchins, Diadema. And I, along with a group of four other students, got to tag along.”

To test this variable, the researcher and students collected 70 Black Spined Sea Urchins from a surplus population. Between the three test reefs, they implanted the Urchins into the coral. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work.

“After the first day, over 50 percent of them died,” Simons explained.

No matter the result, the process of identifying the problem and attempting a solution left a bigger imprint.

“The cool part about the whole situation was that, going into the projects, the researchers didn’t know the answers either. They were helping us out just as much as we were helping them,” Simons said.

When his term at the Island School came to an end, Simons said he dreaded the return to Pittsburgh.  He found it ironic.

“For the first 50 days, I was homesick, but then there was suddenly a switch, and then I never wanted to leave,” he said. “It’s like you suddenly realize that all of the kids on the trip are just like you. Once you go through an incredible experience with others, you’re instantly bonded. And that’s how I felt with these kids.”

Although the final quarter of senior year approaches and life at home has settled in, there remains a part of Simons that yearns for the semester that once was.

“I would do it [again] in a heartbeat,” he said. “I would be happy to go right now.”