junior program summer site : conversations : first session



	alisha from massachusetts (7/9) Alisha, a Voyager from Massachusetts, is enjoying her first summer at the Junior Program. As a day student, she enjoys having the option to stay late for main events, attend weekend trips, and stay overnight on weekends. This summer she hopes to improve her swimming skills and continue meeting new friends in Explo's open, friendly environment. Is this your first summer at Explo? Yeah. This is my first summer and I’ve really been liking it. Good! What do you like about it? It’s really fun. I expected that it would be hard to make friends, but I already have a lot. I’m friends with a lot of the girls in my group, especially Sarah and Adrianna. What made it easy to make friends here? Everybody is so open, nice, and easy to talk to. I thought it would be a lot harder, but they’re just so fun! It’s much easier to make friends at Explo than at school. Which courses are you taking? I’m taking “Goofy Gadgets”, which is a Lego engineering class, and I’m taking “Crime + Punishment”, which is a class about criminal law and courtrooms. What have you been doing in “Goofy Gadgets”? Well, we just finished building bridges. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing next, but it’s going to have something to do with shapes and how they help to build stuff. The bridge we made was a double-decker bridge. We didn’t really use the shapes because we didn’t know how to make some of them yet, but the bridge was still pretty strong. We also made cars and stuff to go on them, and they fit and everything. We’ve been learning about triangles and how they make things like bridges stronger because they have points where all the energy is focused, so they’re very balanced. We also watched a video about a bridge that wasn’t well supported and the bridge started waving and broke down in the middle. We just starting working with [Lego] Mindstorms, which is when you go onto a computer program and program them and then hook them up to your car and they’ll do whatever you programmed them to. Have you been enjoying it so far? Yeah! I had never worked with Lego Mindstorms before. This class wasn’t my first choice, but I ended up really liking it so I decided not to change it. What about your other class? In “Crime + Punishment” we’ve been learning about how to pick a jury, as well as some special cases that have changed the laws and the Bill of Rights. On Thursday we’re going to have a mock case and we’re going to split into a jury and a judge and everything. It’s going to be cool. Tomorrow is mini-course day. What are you taking? Basketball and swim lessons. Last week, basketball was really fun but we couldn’t start our swim lessons because there was a thunderstorm. I’m looking forward to starting it this week though. Do you enjoy swimming often? I don’t know how to very well, but I love to be in the water. My mom would like me to learn how, and so would I! I love snorkeling. What did you do in basketball? We went over, like, almost everything. We learned dribbling, the types of passes and catches . . . we shot at the hoops . . . and then we learned how to hold the ball so that nobody could take it from you. I don’t have a hoop, but my cousin does and I like shooting hoops there. I hope to learn more about trapping and defending this week, because I don’t know much about either of those. Hopefully we’ll also go into some of the rules of the game, too. Did you go on any trips this weekend? Yes, I went to the Science Museum and an Omni film. I didn’t know what an Omni film was, but it was actually a theater with a great big dome over you that you watch the movie on. The movie was about the Colorado River and how it’s disappearing and how it should be saved. They compared the river as it is now to how it was a long time ago. It’s much smaller now, and it’s actually more polluted. You can’t tell by looking at it, but it is. Did you enjoy it? Yeah. I had never seen a movie on a screen like that before. At my old home, which was in India, we went to a theater like that but the dome wasn’t as big. The Science Museum was also really fun. We got to go on the musical stairs, and we also saw the human evolution exhibit which had optical illusions. They were really fun. Did you learn anything new? Oh, yeah! The optical illusions were pretty cool, and I learned more about the human body. They had a cool exhibit where you rode a stationary bike, and as you ride it you could see how the human skeleton moved on it. Awesome. Did you go on a trip on Sunday too? No, but I did stay overnight that night. It was really fun. A girl that was in my group at the museum was also sleeping over, so we already knew each other. Which activities have you enjoyed the most? I’ve done almost all of the free-swims, because those are always fun and I enjoy being in the water. I also liked playing “statues”. "Statues"? What is that? There’s one person that is the museum director. They stand in the corner and count to 10 while the other people strike a pose. The museum director walks around, and when their back is turned the other people can change their pose. But if they catch you moving, you’re out. The person that moves the most but doesn’t get caught at the end wins. That sounds fun. Which other activities did you like? I tried the sponge painting activity, which was actually really hard. I tried to make a sunset at sea, but it wasn’t very good. We had a few different kinds of sponges we could use. What were you expecting before you came to Explo? Well, my cousin had gone to Explo before, so he told me that it was fun and that I should sleep over. Both of them are true. It’s really fun because you get to meet new people that you don’t know. I also thought the food was going to be really bad, but it’s actually really good. So Explo lived up to your expectations? Yeah, it has lived up to them and probably more. The people are really nice; I really like my Day Adviser. Her name is Tiama and she’s really nice. I like the other girls in my DA group. We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. We’re not exactly like a family, but we have a connection. Would you recommend Explo to a friend? Yes, I’m going to . . . because it’s easy to get to know people. We have fun theme days where you can dress up and stuff. The trips are fun. Everybody is nice. And the classes are really good, too. If Explo were a type of animal, what would it be? I’d probably think of it as a dog: caring, easy to win over, easy to like, and dogs always like you back. Whenever you see a dog you feel happy and at home. Explo is like a dog because when you’re here, you think, “Oh, I know everybody here; I’ve been here before.” The people here like you back. It’s just friendly. more conversations > first session \| second session