junior program summer site : conversations : second session



	eli from massachustts (7/30) Eli is a 7th grade day student, and this is his first summer at Explo. He enjoys the flexibility of chosing courses and activities at Explo, and particularly enjoys sport activities like whiffleball and kickball. How do you like Explo so far? I like it a lot because there are different things you can do. Like, in the afternoon, you have two classes that you do every day. But in the morning, you have two activity periods, and you get to pick new ones every day. It’s sort of like a “free choice”. What have been some of your favorite activities? I like playing whiffleball, kickball, baseball, swimming. . . a lot of sports. Today I played whiffleball and basketball knockout. Are there a lot of sports to choose from at Explo? Yeah, but there is also other stuff you can do. What other stuff do you like to do? Well, I like “Thrill Ride”, one of my courses. We make things out of Legos, but we put this machine on it so that we can control it. We have bumper car races and stuff with them. I’m also doing “Hovercraft Heroics”. We used balloons and blew them up and put them on CD’s to try to make them fly through the air. We just made a really big hovercraft that we can ride and push people around on. How did you do that? We took a big piece of wood and put plastic around it, then put a leaf blower on it so that it filled up with air. Then we could fit three people around it and ride around. How are your classes at Explo different from classes at school? Well, at school, if you make a mistake, it’s bad because it affects your grades and stuff. Here, if you make a mistake it’s okay. In school it’s mostly about work, but here it’s more about fun and games and friends. Is it easy to make friends here? Yeah. I’ve made friends in my classes and from just hanging out on the quad. Most of them are day students, but I’ve also met some residential students. Did you go on any trips last weekend? Yeah, I went to Water Country and it was really fun. They had a lot of rides, like “Geronimo”. Seventh graders get to go around the park by themselves, so it’s really fun. On Wednesday I’m going to Blue Man Group; on Friday I’m going to Extreme Bowling; and on Sunday I’m going to Canobie Lake Park. Have you stayed late for any main events? Yeah, I stay late every day. My favorite main event was probably the Airborne Comedians. They also had Carnival Night and Movie Night, which were both really fun. And tonight is “Amazing Hero Art”. What is it like being a day student? It’s really fun because you can either leave at 4:00 or stay late. I stay until 8:45 most nights, so I get to hang out with a lot of people more, then I get to go home and hang out with my family. Day students and residential students blend in pretty well here, though. What do you do with your day group? On Wednesdays we have group activities. Sometimes we play bombardment, capture the flag, or basketball. My DA’s name is Dawit and he’s really nice. He can help us with anything, and we can talk to him if we need help. Was it easy to get adjusted to Explo as a new student? I didn’t think that I was going to have fun, but now it’s so much fun. I got to meet a lot of people. I had some friends that came before last year and they said it was lots of fun, so I decided to try it. What’s the staff like? They’re really nice. They can help you if you’re having problems with something, or go over the schedule with you, or even just talk. How is Explo different from other summer programs? At other camps I’ve been to, they’re less organized and there wasn't a lot of staff to help you. At Explo, though, you get to decide what you want to do, and talk to a lot of people and make friends. The staff hangs out with the students, and they lead different activities and teach classes. What are Explo students like? They’re really nice and I’ve made a lot of friends. It’s easier to make friends at Explo than at school because you’re having fun here so it’s easy to talk to people. At school, sometimes it’s not a big deal if you’re getting bullied, but here it’s a really big deal and it’s not tolerated. I think that’s a good thing because then people that would normally get bullied at school can have fun without worrying that someone is going to mistreat them. If you were to give advice to someone that is thinking about coming to Explo, what would you say? If you’re thinking that it might not be fun, it will be. You’ll get used to it quickly and you’ll have a lot of friends. It’s not hard to fit in here, because everyone wants to have friends, so it’s easy to fit in with other people. What do you hope to accomplish or learn this summer? I want to learn how to make really big hovercrafts in my hovercraft class, but besides that, I want to just keep having fun and making new friends. If Explo were to have a mascot, what would it be? I think it should be someone in a crazy costume. It would just be totally random, like blue and light green with glasses, a hat, and maybe a bathing suit or something. That would represent that, even if you’re different, you can still have fun. If you don’t have fun at school, you will have fun at Explo. Everyone is different, and there are a lot of people here from throughout the country and the world. more conversations > first session \| second session