Alumni Feature

Eastside Catholic: School of Dreams

by David L. Anderson ’84

I have always been a dreamer. Nights fi nd me dreaming I can fl y. By day I imagine distant jungles, rainbow-colored macaws, and vanishing Indian languages. Although I still haven’t learned to fl y, I have discovered that dreams can come true.

I’m a member of the 1984 graduating class of Eastside Catholic High School, a member of the fi rst-ever, four-year graduating class. When I refl ect on those four years now, in some ways it looks like an experiment in Ms. Madsen’s chemistry class. Key ingredients in the chemical reaction known as “education” included Doc Culbert reading “Chaucer” in old English, weekly meditation with Sister Mary Lila, Ms. Skoog coaching the drill team to a state title, deafening basketball games stomped onto metal bleachers, and the introspection during Friday liturgies. At the time, I didn’t see the deeper lessons buried within. “Chaucer” was a metaphor for imagination; the drill team’s take-your-breath-away rendition of “Let the Good Times Roll” showed us beauty in ourselves; roaring at basketball games taught us to be heard and enjoy life to the fullest; and Friday liturgies instilled inner peace. What seemed at the time like the routineness of high school was, in reality, a deliberate and dedicated effort to grow compassionate world-literate leaders out of young people. I’m here to tell you today that it works.

After graduating from Eastside Catholic and then Humboldt State University with a Bachelor of Science in wildlife management, I volunteered for the Peace Corps and landed in Honduras, the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I mistook my mission as teaching rural Hondurans the value of protecting natural resources, like wild rivers for water. The real lessons weren’t the ones I taught, but the ones I learned.

What was it like living in the poorest villages in the poorest country of the Americas? Enriching beyond words. Countless hours and nights spent in mud houses swapping stories by the light of kerosene lamps builds friendships that transcend the passing of decades and bridge distances spanning continents. Camping on the plank fl oor of a Miskito house above the gentle whispers of Caribbean waves casts an irremovable tide in your heart. Seeing hunger and malnutrition in children after crops fail instills a deep sense of humility.

Those experiences created a love affair with tropical forests, beaches and villages that led to Master of Science and doctorate degrees back in Honduras. High on life, I crafted my fi eld research around climbing tall trees in the rainforest and studying birds in the canopy, 130 feet (~13 stories) high. One of my most special memories from Honduras is the year I lived in the village of Las Marías, deep in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, studying birds of prey. I taught my Pech and Miskito friends the tricks of climbing tall trees and measuring vegetation plots, and they taught me to pilot dugout canoes up rapids on week-long river camping trips, days from the nearest road, electric light bulb or grocery store. Throw in meals of iguana egg omelets, tropical diseases like malaria and leishmaniasis, and there you have a recipe for indelible personal transformation. Eventually those experiences translated to books with my name on the cover, scientifi c articles on endangered birds like the Honduran Emerald hummingbird, a reputation as an authority on methods for climbing tall trees for science and a TED talk on the transformative power of climbing trees.

Today, I work as a research biologist for The Peregrine Fund in Boise, Idaho, a nonprofi t organization dedicated to preserving birds of prey around the world. I lead projects on raptors like the Arctic Gyrfalcon and the Harpy Eagle, predator of howler monkeys and lord of the rainforest canopy. Studying birds of prey is cool, but if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that giving is the sweetest reward. With that mantra and my addiction to tree climbing, I founded a nonprofi t called Canopy Watch International. We specialize in teaching tree climbing as a tool for personal and scientifi c discovery, public climbs at the Idaho Botanical Garden, international climber trainings for biologists in Latin America to study and preserve tropical biodiversity in forest canopies—we do those things to enrich the lives of strangers, and to leave the planet a better place

What seemed at the time like the routineness of high school was, in reality, a deliberate and dedicated effort to grow compassionate worldliterate leaders out of young people.

than when we arrived. My sincere hope is that when it’s time for my body to depart the planet, I’m a better person for having impacted the lives of others. It all goes back to lessons learned at a little school with big dreams on the outskirts of Seattle.

Eastside Catholic is much more than a school. It’s a community, an academic constellation and a living embodiment of the belief that compassion, faith, kindness and a singular dedication to learning can make us better people and through us the world a better place. I call that “education.” Now that I’ve been granted 37 years of perspective since graduation, I can see a dream made reality: believe in yourself, believe in your teachers, believe in your school, enrich yourself with knowledge, realize your potential. One day it will all pay off in ways you never imagined, but always dreamed.

Dedicated to my classmates, teachers and administrators from the old Eastside Catholic High School campus; and to my mom Sally Anderson (1933-2020) who believed in the excellent education she knew Eastside Catholic School would deliver.

Learn more about David’s projects at: canopywatch.com or watch his TED talk at youtu.be/ZE-pa5eZJM8.