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Dear Mom: Summer school rocks!
After four weeks of a French-immersion program in Quebec City, I developed that fatal flaw of overconfidence. Knowing I would return home in a matter of days, I went downtown after class (class meant six hours of French lessons a day) and found a used-book store. Because foreign-language books are usually way overpriced at your average American bookstore, I thought I’d take advantage of my location and stock up. With a stack of five or six teen novels and a poetry collection for kids, I marched up to the counter and made typical small talk in French with the guy behind the counter.
He could tell by my horrible accent that I was far from Quebecois, and in what I supposed was a prank, he spoke to me in the most proper French and the thickest accent. I held my own—until he repeated the same line over and over again. I couldn’t figure it out; what verb was that? What strange vocabulary? Was it slang I hadn’t picked up? Would he speak in English if I asked, even though I wasn’t in the touristy part of the city? Finally, laughing, he said, “one cent!” I had given him $20 for books that totaled $20.01.
Yeah, there are some things I know I’ll never forget from the summer I spent at College Saint-Charles-Garnier.
The cafeteria food. The rugby matches of my classmates. Missing curfews. Great teachers and bizarre antimateurs (counselors). Late-night bus-ride debates with students from all over Canada, the United States and Mexico–some even from Japan, the Caribbean, China and Ukraine. And that “un cent,” which sounds like “onson,” means I better find a penny.
More and more, students are finding summer programs to be great alternatives to the activities expected of high school students during summers: flipping burgers or mowing lawns, watching Jerry Springer reruns and complaining with friends about how “there’s nothing to do in this town.” Those three summer months are ideal to explore new academic areas (from archeology to zoology), to visit exciting places (programs can be found across the United States and Canada, as well as in countries around the globe) and to just plain have fun (try a program in fashion, horse training, model rocketry or virtual reality).
Sounds interesting enough on paper, but what will it really be like? Bizarre roommates, cardboard-flavored dinner rolls and studying over the summer? Who would sign up for that willingly? You’d be surprised. And with all the options available, it seems there’s a program for everyone.
Oh, the places you’ll go
The artist in you doesn’t need to stop just because your school’s English and music-theory classes do. ACTeen is a summer program in New York City for 13- to 20-year-olds that allows students to take classes taught by professional actors while living in a city that caters to artistic talent. Bennington College in Vermont offers programs in visual art and creative writing, as does the California State Summer School for the Arts.
The North Carolina School of the Arts offers summer dance programs in classical and modern dance, and allows students to work in classes based on their skill level in order to reach new heights of mastery. A music-themed summer program held at Potsdam University features ensemble groups, technique classes and guest musicians and professors from the Crane School of Music, who give recitals.
Liz Britton, a flautist who attended the program last summer, says it offered her an experience she wouldn’t have gotten through her regular school music program.
“I got to play in a really good band, so I guess I have a better understanding of what good music really sounds like and of how good a bunch of high schoolers really can sound,” she says.
If politics and government are your passion, there are several programs that bring students from around our country and others to Washington, D.C. What better place is there to see our nation’s leadership at work?
The National Student Leadership Conference mixes lectures, leadership activities and field trips to sites of government activity to help develop the leaders of tomorrow. The program uses a model-United Nations format through which students represent nations in fictional situations and thus study foreign affairs without tests and papers. Gwendolyn Stockman, who participated in the 11-day program in D.C., says, “The conference made me a ton more interested in international affairs, since I never really was interested in them before. It taught me that we are all leaders in our own way.”
Other programs on government include the Junior Statesmen Summer School (which offers programs at universities in California, New Jersey, D.C., Illinois, and Connecticut) and the Global Young Leaders Conference in D.C.
Jetsetters, pack those bags!
To study the globe is not the same as to explore it. People to People, a program started by President Eisenhower, sends middle and high school students to Europe, the South Pacific, South Africa, the Middle East, China and New Zealand. International opportunities may also be available through groups of which you are already a member. The Girl Scouts offer a series of “Wider Op” programs each year, including summer trips for individual scouts to Mexico, Switzerland and India. Religious groups like United Synagogue Youth (USY) also have travel programs. Shaina Kovalsky, a high school student who attended a USY program, says the highlights of her trip included “meeting 60 cool new people, seeing every bit of Israel from less of a tourist perspective and participating in gadna (five days of army training at a northern army base).”
If you are going to do a summer program outside of the country, or even outside your region, as customs in the South are different from those in the Pacific Northwest, it is extremely important that you research your destination. Cultural differences may present challenges.
Alison Rouzer, a high school swimmer, went to Australia with the People to People Sports Ambassador Program. She has some food allergies, but thought she had prepared herself to handle the differences between continents. Unfortunately, she ate a hamburger—a safe food for her in the U.S.—only to find that hamburgers there are made with eggs. Alison she has egg allergies. One hospital visit later, she still says the trip was “so much fun, and it's something [I’ll] always remember.”
That is what the summer-program experience boils down to: an incredible memory. Something to craft into a great college essay. A collection of interesting photographs for your locker. A taste of freedom, and a chance to taste post-high school life. Will your friends have spent their summers at Circus Camp or at the Dairy Queen? It depends on who your friends are, of course. But meeting people you would probably never meet otherwise is one of the greatest benefits.
Summer programs also run a risk of costing a lot, depending on where you want to go. But your financial situation isn’t the end of the world. There are scholarships available at most programs for those with financial need. My French program had a nice Canadian exchange rate that took a third off the cost, and some public universities offer programs at drastically reduced prices for in-state residents. In the end, it will probably mean saving babysitting money to get you there, so you need to do the research to decide what program is perfect for you.
Wherever you go, heed this advice: learn how to pay for souvenirs in any language.
Web sites to check out:
http://www.petersons.com: Look under “summer opportunities” for a seemingly endless listing of programs.
http://www.summeroncampus.com: This is a directory of New York state’s summer programs. http://www.studyabroad.com: Search for international programs by subject, season or country. Article provided by 
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