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Mary Yap
8th Grade, Bellevue, WA
Attended Summer Stretch Math Camp at UW
Class schedule during camp was swift but effective--maybe a test to wake us up in the morning, some note taking, an assignment, lunch, a test, more note taking and an assignment, maybe another test--a rhythm that played throughout the whole of the day. Due to this rush, there wasn't much time to spare on finding materials, and I found myself, on the night of the first day of class, organizing my paper, pens, pencils, and notes in a way that would enable me to quickly pull out whatever I needed and make the most of the time I had.
The hurried rhythm of class also made me more flexible, as I learned to twist my already-gained knowledge of math to help me understand the new concepts that I was learning. However, during tests, this rush slowed down considerably--after the first few tests (and the first few failures), the majority of the class learned to check their work time after time, some going even farther than others to ensure that all the work they turned in was to the best of their knowledge and abilities.
The rush of class, rather than maiming the class's understanding and ability to learn, enhanced and caused a greater ambiance in the room for friendly competition, and created a greater sense of individualism for most--if not all--of the students in the class.
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Emily Martin
9th Grade, Pe Ell, WA; Attended Satori at EWU
We had some great discussions in Ethical Issues, a class that I took last year, and will most likely take again next year. This year there was not quite enough diversity of opinion for the first couple of days. Then, a few people took on the role of Devil's Advocate and played it very well, and we had some heated debate about abortion, gay rights, the death penalty, assisted suicide, stem cell research, and much more. One thing I love about this class is that you can completely disagree with someone inside that room, but once class was over, friendships were not affected in any way.
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Joshua Arnold
5th Grade, Wenatchee, WA;
Attended Johns Hopkins University Summer CTY Program
On Monday of the third and final week of CTY, we gave 5-minute oral presentations on the poet of our choice. I chose Langston Hughes. I shared who he was, where he was from and why he wrote. My classmates were not aware that the reason Langston wrote was to cope with his sad childhood.
Later in the week, we completed our main project---our self-bound books! Some of us shared our story with other Humanities classes so that we could get to hear each other's writing. The other W&R Workshop class and the Stories and Poems class both came to my classroom (my younger brother Joseph was in the latter class). Then some of us (including me) read our stories and poems to each other. All of what I had learned shone forth in that one story. It was great to hear the applause after so much work!
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Taylor Gawlik
7th Grade, Bainbridge Island, WA
Attended Middle Ages course at Stanford University
We learned a great deal on our field trip into San Francisco. It was nice to actually see the art and gothic architecture in the cathedral and the Palace of Fine Arts, rather than just reading about it. When we read Beowulf, I learned what Olde and Middle English sounded like and how to understand it. Although I took an entire spiral bound notebook and filled it with notes, it hardly felt like I was working. It would be great if school could always be like that. My favorite topic, by far, was learning about how Muhammad started the Islamic religion. I realized that I love learning about world religions. Maybe that will be something I would like to study in college. On our first day of class, our instructor asked us to list the ten most important things to know about the Middle Ages. Since I knew pretty much nothing about the Middle Ages, I had no idea what to write. At the end of the program, our instructor asked us again to make a list. My ten things were done in less than a minute. I had a lot of fun learning at CTY and I hope my other learning experiences will be as much fun as this was.
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Joseph Sequin
7th Grade, Wenatchee, WA
Attended Adventures in Science and Art Program at WWU
During my stay we ate on campus and slept in dorms. We walked across the campus to classrooms. We learned how to effectively use gamemaker, flash and robolab. We used these to create games, design animations, and program robots.
This was a huge opportunity for me to learn, have fun, and make new friends. We got to not only play games, but make new games, and use flash to make cool introductions. I have never had so much fun learning or working on a computer. I made many friends at camp, and will have many memories. Thank you very much for helping to fund such a great opportunity to expand my knowledge.
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