The first fish 18-year-old Howard School senior Juwan Hill caught nearly took his head off.
After receiving fly fishing lessons from veteran Perk Perkins, CEO of fly fishing gear manufacturer Orvis, Hill headed out on the water. He managed to land a fish during that first expedition, but he misjudged the weight of the fish, and when he snapped his line back to haul it in, he found himself staring down a fish-shaped missile.
“I had to duck out of the way,” Hill laughs. “He nearly slapped me in the face.”
The unlikely partnership of Howard students and a renowned fly fisherman started with the Lookout Mountain Conservancy. The local land trust organization also runs an internship program with Howard School, organized in part by the conservancy’s executive director, Robyn Carlton. Through that program, students learn interpersonal and work skills by helping conservancy employees maintain the conservancy’s land, building and growing gardens, clearing trails and performing whatever other tasks the students are interested in, Carlton says.
“[The students] tell us what they need and what they want to do next, and we help make that happen,” she says.