junior program summer site : conversations : second session



	julia from new jersey (8/1) Julia, a 4th grade residential student, is enjoying her first summer at the Junior Program. When asked to pick her favorite aspect of Explo, she decided it was the people: friendly students and staff members. How are you liking Explo? It’s really nice. I pretty much like everything. Which courses are you taking? “59 Minutes” [broadcast journalism] and “Real Monopoly” [business] for my two regular courses, and cake decorating and sculpture for my two mini-courses. What have you been doing in “59 Minutes”? We’re making a news show about Explo. We’ve been filming and interviewing a lot. I interviewed [faculty member] Lauren. What did you ask her? I asked her what she liked about Explo. She said she really likes it. When I asked what she didn’t like, she said she didn’t like that people are always picking the grass. Yeah, that is pretty unfortunate. What are you going to do now that you’ve finished interviewing her? I’m going to tell my teacher that I finished the interview, and I’m going to report about it on the news show. We use cameras to record our show, and we’re all news reporters. Is journalism a career you think you might be interested in? I guess, maybe. It’s pretty interesting. Tell me about “Real Monopoly”. It’s a class where we make up a business and sell stuff. We picked a few things to sell – this year we chose two things. Then we needed to choose prices and how the items look, which involves a lot of voting. What will you be selling? We’re going to be selling mini-fans and backpacks. The backpacks are going to be orange and they’re going to say “Explo ‘08” in white on them, and the fans are going to be white and say “Explo” in orange in “’08” in green. (Those are the Junior Program’s colors.) We chose backpacks because school is going to be starting again soon, so people will need backpacks, and we chose fans because it’s always so hot out. That’s for sure! What will you be doing now that you’ve chosen the items you’ll be selling? We had to choose how we’re going to sell it -- like, what we’re going to do to make sure people know about what we’re selling. We’ll be doing skits and making posters and flyers. What will you be doing for your skit? We split into two groups -- a backpack group and a fan group. I’m in the backpack group. The backpack skit has a bunch of people dropping all their stuff, then a bunch of people come out with backpacks and say, “Oh, you should really try one of these!” We also had to set the prices. Last session they sold the backpacks for $5.00, so we’re keeping that price. The fans, we decided, will be $4.50. How did you decide the pricing? Well, for the backpacks, we just kept the price from last session. But the fans cost money to get, so if we want to get all that money back, we have to charge more than $3.00. We had a lot of discussion over that because one person said that at their local store at home, mini-fans cost $10.00. Well that makes $4.50 seem pretty reasonable. What will you be doing with the profits? We’re going to donate it to the Exploration Scholarship Fund. What’s it like being a residential student? It’s really fun because you get to spend a lot of time with your hallmates. We like to play games like jacks or cards or just talk and hang out or draw. How is Explo different from what you expected before you came? It’s a lot better than what I thought it was going to be! The dorms are really nice, and there’s a lot of dancing and singing and stuff, which is fun. I’m really glad that I came. If you had to pick one favorite thing about Explo, what would it be? Probably all of the people here, because they’re all really nice. The staff makes sure that there isn’t any bullying, and the students don’t do any bullying. That’s important, because if there were bullying, people wouldn’t want to be here. And because it’s not very nice. Explo takes bullying more serious than other places, because other programs don’t focus that much on it. Explo takes bullying pretty seriously. That’s a very good thing. How is Explo different from school? It’s a lot better than school. At school you just sit in a classroom all day. Explo gives you more time to be free. You get to choose your activities and courses and stuff. Also, you don’t sleep at school. This is like a boarding school. If Explo were a type of food, what would it be? A delicious food, like candy. It’s sweet in many ways, like Explo. more conversations > first session \| second session