After plowing through more than nine months of lectures, labs and assignments during the school year, Aaron Rosenthal of Buffalo Grove, Erin Donnelly of Schaumburg and David Kargman of Chicago last summer eagerly looked forward to . . . more classes.
Teens excited about trading lazy summer days for more studies?
Yes, if it means immersion in what might prove to be a career.
Yes, if it means a chance to experience college while still in high school.
Yes, if it means rubbing elbows with experts.
Many institutions of higher education are sharing their resources with high school students (and in some cases, grade school children) in summer programs as diverse as the institutions that offer them.
Some are residential; others are for commuters. Some focus on the arts, some on the sciences. Most programs are for high schoolers, but others are designed for children in elementary school and junior high.
Rosenthal, 17, a student at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, opted to spend six weeks between his junior and senior year soaking up the Ivy League atmosphere of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Accepted into the school’s Youth Programs, which allows “rising” (translation: about-to-be) high school juniors and seniors to live on campus and enroll in regular college credit courses, he took a Political Campaign 2000 course that hooked into the Republican National Convention and non-partisan Shadow Convention in town. The program also included workshops on test, study and time management skills.
At Penn, he not only picked up political insights but also college living pointers.
“You get the whole roommate experience,” said Rosenthal, who shared a four-person suite with others in the program. “I learned about interacting with people and about compromising. Going into it, I didn’t know what to expect. I grew so much as a person–doing laundry on my own, attending college classes, accomplishing everything on my own.”
Rosenthal heard about the programs while checking out the school and other Eastern colleges during last year’s spring break. The experience helped him decide Penn was the school for him.
“I could test the college for six weeks, and I wanted to make the most of the summer before my senior year,” he said. “Now I want to go to school there.”
Donnelly, now 17 and a junior at Fremd High School in Palatine, can’t think of anything she would have liked better last summer than to spend a week in Barat College’s Shakespeare on the Green Summer Youth Program in Lake Forest–unless she could have had two weeks. A weeklong residential theater arts camp operated by some of the college’s drama department faculty, the program exposes high school sophomores, juniors and seniors to the language, rhythm and concepts of Shakespeare, stage combat, acting techniques, professional production rehearsals and college living.
“This will sound corny, but I came back a different person,” Donnelly said, attributing her growth on a “personal level” to having to share living spaces.
Donnelly is sure what she learned will be put to good use, first as a member of Fremd’s Thespian Club, and later as a professional actor.
“[Acting] is what I want to do in the future,” she said. “I would totally take this [program] over work or anything else I could do in the summer.”
Last summer’s experience at Northwestern University’s National High School Institute convinced Kargman, 17, a senior at the Latin School of Chicago, to apply to the university’s school of speech.
Characterizing the five weeks of rigorous acting, designing, technical and directing workshops in NHSI’s Theatre Arts Division as the “greatest experience” of his life, he said: “I’m glad I went. It was a lot more intense than I expected. The work was hard. But it was worth it. It was something that very few high schools would have as a focus. At Latin, the focus is on academics. This is a rare opportunity to focus on theater.”
The granddaddy of college residential summer programs for high school students is Northwestern’s NHSI, founded in 1931. Administrators at NU and other colleges say it is the oldest, and with an enrollment of 850 students, the largest, university-based program for outstanding high school students in the United States. Students apply during their junior year to one of eight divisions: Championship Debate, Coon Hardy Debate, Journalism, Leadership, Music, Media Arts, Theatre Arts and Junior Statesmen (which includes politics and congressional-style debates).
“It is very competitive,” said NHSI administrative director Barbara Reeder, pointing out that only one in three applicants is accepted.
And NU’s program is not for teens looking for a summer where the livin’ is easy. A glimpse at a Theatre Arts schedule shows workshops taking place from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. with an hour break for lunch and dinner.
So why go?
“Ralph Dennis, a professor in the school of speech, founded the institute about 70 years ago to bring together gifted young people and superior teachers in an atmosphere of affection, knowledge and trust,” Reeder said. “And he wanted to give them a college experience while they are still in high school. You have college-level instruction given to kids who all share the same passion.”
Among the newest and smallest of the college programs is Barat’s Summer Youth Program. Currently preparing for its third season, the Youth Program was organized by drama department faculty members who stage Shakespeare on the Green, a popular, professional production put on each summer on Barat’s front lawn. The program offers students a chance to watch a Shakespeare on the Green rehearsal, talk to the actors and put on their own Shakespearean scenes before the main play begins on opening night.
The application process is “rigorous,” according to program director Holly Orfanedes-Roth, who said that teacher recommendations, grades and an essay are important. But most important, she said, is a passion for Shakespearean theater.
“We want to reach out to youths who have an interest in theater and want to explore Shakespeare. Basically, how I set it up is as the type of program I would have enjoyed experiencing myself as a high school student,” said Roth, a Buffalo Grove High School alum who has performed in Shakespearean and other theater productions in Los Angeles and Chicago.
She sees the camp, which accepts only 30 applicants, as both a learning experience and a testing of career and college choices.
“Sometimes students who attend the camp decide to come to Barat College because of their experience,” Roth said. “The camp also encourages students’ budding interest in acting and adds to their literary viewpoint. Some who come know so much already. Others do not have a lot of experience with theater or Shakespeare but just know it interests them. … The weeklong experience is very similar to what an undergraduate theater program would be like.”
Barat freshman Demetrios Troy, 18, experienced NU’s NHSI Theatre Arts Division the summer before his senior year at Prospect High School, then headed to Barat’s Summer Youth Program after graduation. Troy recommended both programs.
“NU was wonderful, very intense. It really weeded out people who were not interested in professional acting and gave you insight into conservatory life,” he said. “At Barat I liked the attention you get. It has fewer students, which allows more interaction with the professors. I definitely recommend going to NU the summer before the senior year because you can still go to Barat after you graduate [or the summer before junior year].”
Unlike the NU and Barat programs, which focus on specific fields of study, students in the University of Pennsylvania’s Youth Programs, also known as the Pre-College Programs, are free to choose any of several courses offered for credit during a regular summer semester. Pre-College was started in 1981 as a service to young people, according to director Valerie Ross.
“It’s very much about getting a head start on college life,” Ross said.
Capped at 250 students, the program has an application process she thinks is similar but “more flexible” than the school’s entrance requirements.
“We attract young people who are still developing their portfolios,” she said. “We do not judge solely on the PSAT. We look at everything, but the process is still extremely rigorous.”
Penn also has been offering a four-week Summer Science Academy since 1985 for approximately 65 high school students who are interested in working with Penn scientists in such areas as physics, astronomy, molecular biology and DNA analysis.
Closer to home, the University of Chicago in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood offers five summer credit programs to high school students through its Graham School for General Studies, in topics that range from Egyptology-Archeology to theater to the biological sciences. Acceptance is based on criteria similar to undergraduate entry.
U. of C. administrator Casey Turner, associate dean of humanities, arts and sciences and summer studies for the Graham School, said the program began small in 1998 but is expanding every year.
“The university is interested in sharing its resources with people outside the university. The last several years, we’ve been looking outward more. We’re also looking to attract more talented students. This is one of the ways to do that. We bring them in so they can have a look around. We tell them, if you think this is a good match for you, please apply to the college,” she said.
Another school that has a college credit program for incoming high school sophomores, juniors and seniors and a program for students younger than 10th grade is Columbia College in Chicago. Its High School Institute, a five-week program for approximately 600 teens interested in the visual, performing or media arts, allows students to take regular summer college courses for credit in approximately 18 subjects.
The college’s Summer Arts Camp invites 90 youngsters ages 7 to 14 to work on specific projects in visual, performing and media arts during one or both of the program’s four-week sessions.
Reaching youngsters even further down the age ladder is College of DuPage’s Center for Youth Education Programs in Glen Ellyn and Oakton Community College’s Kids College in Des Plaines.
DuPage operates a Kids on Campus program for incoming kindergartners through 5th graders in fine and performing arts, mathematics, computers, science and reading and language study and a Teens on Campus program for 6th- through 12th-grade students in most subject areas including fine and performing arts, mathematics, science, languages, test preparation and computer programming.
Oakton’s Kids College offers several weeklong classes through the summer in reading, math, art and science (which includes shark dissection) for various skill levels and ages.
Kids College director Liz Burk thinks the classes help youngsters stay in learning mode through the summer and offer enrichment opportunities.
“Sometimes during the long summer, kids get out of swing with academic skills. And the classes offer something different,” she said, pointing to experiments with popcorn, peanut butter and jelly. “The emphasis is on having fun.”
Whether a youngster wants to try out a college or career, follow up on an interest or explore something different, colleges near and far have some creative answers to the old-hat question, what did you do on your summer vacation?
SUMMER PROGRAMS EXTEND EDUCATION
Just when their peers are gleefully slamming lockers on another school year, hundreds of teenagers and even junior high and elementary pupils will just as gleefully be starting another round of classes, this time on college campuses.
Among the best sources for such programs is www.petersons.com.
What follows is a sample of what is available. Prices may not include the cost of books or other supplies:
Barat College, 700 E. Westleigh Rd., Lake Forest. Shakespeare on the Green Summer Youth Program; cost is $750; call 847-604-6303.
College of DuPage, 425 22nd Street, Glen Ellyn. Center for Youth Education’s Kids on Campus program, cost is $90; Teens on Campus program, cost is $180; call 630-942-2208.
Columbia College, 72 E. 11 St., Chicago. High School Summer Institute, $150 per credit hour (most courses are two credits), 312-344-7134; Summer Arts Camp, cost is $860 a session ($1,550 for both sessions); call 312-744-7574.
Northwestern University, 617 Noyes St., Evanston. National High School Institute, cost is $3,350; call 847-491-3026.
Oakton Community College Kids College, 1600 E. Golf Rd., Des Plaines. $100 per course; call 847-635-1425.
University of Chicago, Graham School for General Studies, 5835 S. Kimbark Ave., Chicago. Summer Studies programs range from $1,680 for commuter students in the Insight program to $5,500 for students in residence in the Research in the Biological Science program; call 773-702-1725.
University of Pennsylvania, College of General Studies, 3440 Market St., Philadelphia. Youth Programs are $1,828 for commuter’s one-credit unit, $3,600 for a two-credit unit, $3,450 for residential one-credit unit, $5,200 for residential two-credit unit. Summer Science Academy is $1,900 for commuters, $3,450 residential; call 215-898-5716.
— Jodie Jacobs
