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New Harmony High School
One of Blink’s more recent ventures is in training up the next generation of Louisianans to combat coastal erosion and land loss.
He worked with a team of architects, educators and community leaders to design a new high school education model. The design — for a student-centered learning environment focused on coastal restoration and climate change — won $10 million from the XQ Institute.
The result is New Harmony High School in New Orleans, now nearing the end of its second academic year.
“I’m curious to see, in 30 to 40 years, who’s going to come out of that school and what they’re going to be doing,” Blink said.
Blink said he contributed a unique component to the school’s winning design portfolio: the idea to situate the school on a barge.
“At first people laughed at us,” he said. “But we wanted the school to be place resilient, that wouldn’t have to go packing every time a small tropical storm came through.”
New Harmony isn’t positioned on a barge, yet. But Blink says the idea has gained traction.
“The local school superintendent told me he wished he could get all his schools out of harm’s way as easy as calling a tugboat,” Blink said.
Blink’s official work with New Harmony ended after the concept won the XQ prize. But he stays in contact with school leaders and has given some of the staff tours of wetlands through his day job as owner of Delta Discovery Tours.