junior program summer site : conversations : first session



	cameron from massachusetts (7/21) Cameron is a 7th grade residential student staying for both sessions. His Explo courses from the previous session have sparked new interests for him in the stock market and code breaking, and he's looking forward to a similar experience in the second session. Is this your first summer at Explo? No, this is my third summer. And you decided to stay for two sessions? Yup. Have you always been a six-weeker? No, this is the first summer that I’ve decided to stay for two sessions. What made you decide to stay for both sessions? Well, I just thought that three weeks seemed a little short because time goes so fast here. So, I just decided to try going for six weeks to try to extend that a little bit . . . and it’s working. What were some of your favorite parts about last session? I really liked some of the activities, and my courses were also really nice. Which courses did you take? I took “Stock Pit” with Steven and I took “Mission Code Breaker” with Rachel. They were really nice. I really liked them because they were both sort of math and science, which are two of my favorite subjects. I thought that it was really cool that they could do fun lessons with topics that are usually boring. How are your Explo courses different than your classes at school? Well, they’re a lot more fun and a lot more hands-on. There isn’t a lot of sitting around in the classroom -- you're always up doing stuff or having fun with some sort of activity. The teachers have curriculum advisors listen in on them and tell them what’s working well, and give them suggestions. Did you feel like you learned a lot of new things? Yeah. The “Stock Pit” taught me a lot about stuff that I didn’t know about before, and so did “Mission Code Breaker”. In the “Stock Pit”, we learned about stocks and how they can change; we learned about profit and loss, and how with a risk there’s a reward, but with no risk, there’s none. We played a stock game where we actually invested in 20 real-life companies and watched as they fluctuated. Which companies did you invest in? I invested half of my money in Shell, which went down, surprisingly. The rest of my money I invested in smaller companies: Marvel, Mattel, Burger King, McDonald’s, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola. Which was your worst investment? My worst investment was Sony, so I sold that and bought Nintendo with the money. Is investing and the stock market something you’re interested in for your future? I think it definitely is. I sort of want to open an eTrade account now to get a feel of what it’s actually like to trade on the stock market. How was “Mission Code Breaker”? It was really fun. We sort of had this plotline where we were chasing a fake criminal. It was really fun because we got to go around campus looking for clues, and there were other staff members who sort of acted the parts out. It was a lot more fun than just learning codes in the classroom. Do you think you’ll be able to put your new code breaking skills to good use? Well, maybe with passing notes in class, but I’m not supposed to say that. [Laughs.] But, yeah, there is a lot of stuff that it can be applied to, because we learned about binary codes, and that could be helpful in the real world. Do you feel like your summers at Explo help you in school? Yes, definitely. I feel like they really add a creative spin on learning, so it’s really a fun way to enhance what happens in the classroom. What are you looking forward to about next session? I’m looking forward to my next two courses. I’m taking “Get Your Vote On,” which is a class about politics . . . and I can’t remember what the other one is. I’m also looking forward to my mini-courses, because I got one that I know I really wanted to get. As far as activities, we’ve been requesting some activities with Adam, the activities director, so I think we’re going to have some cool new ones. Do you feel like Explo is the type of place that is open to suggestions? I think it is. You can go into the main office or the dean’s office at any time and ask for something or just tell them how it’s going. I think it’s a very open place. Are you excited to meet a new group of people for second session? I am. I think it’s great that we get a new group of people. I know my roommate this session is one of my friends that I met last year, so it’s going to be good. What are the people at Explo like? The students come from all over the world. They’re very friendly people, and since they’re coming to a program like Explo, they’re usually very easy to get along with. The staff members are carefully selected and they’re really nice people that you can talk to. They’re just really nice people. What do you think the most valuable thing you will take away from Explo will be? I think the most valuable thing will just be the great experience. It really is one of the most fun places I’ve been in my life, and I think it’s easy to take away a lot of stuff here. It’s just such a nice environment to take away that feeling. I think there are some Explo traditions and Explo original activities and dances like the Numa that you just can’t get anywhere else. They really add to the whole idea of Explo. If Explo were to have a mascot, what would it be? Hmm, that’s tough. I think it would be “The Blue Juice Numa Orange-and-Green-o-naters”. Woah, where’d you come up with that? Well, the “Blue Juice Brothers” are sort of an Explo band. They’re a knockoff of the Jonas Brothers. Sometimes during quad time they’ll come out and sing. And the Numa is a really Explo-y dance that we do. It takes awhile, (and you can master it after awhile), but it’s a Romanian song and it’s actually about cell phones, but most people can’t understand Romanian so they don’t know what it means. Everyone knows how to dance to it and everyone sings to it, so it creates a nice sense of community. It’s just a nice way to get together and have fun. And orange and green are the colors of the Junior Program (which I think are better than orange and purple and the Intermediate Program or orange and blue at the Senior program, because green goes better with orange than purple or blue). But anyway, the “Blue Juice Numa Orange-and-Green-o-naters” would just combine all the features of Explo into one mascot. more conversations > first session \| second session