junior program summer site : conversations : first session



	Ginger from Florida (8/07) Ginger is going into the 7th grade, and this was her first year with Explo! In her class "Pirates, Princes, Planets", she wrote her own fantasy story about how the world was saved on Halloween! In "Stand Up and Speak", Ginger learned the skills of public speaking and debate. When she's not busy in classes, Ginger found the time to hang out on the hall with friends, and to meet new people from all over the world! What classes did you take this session? I took “Pirates, Princes, Planets” which is a fantasy writing class, and I took “Stand Up and Speak” which is about public speaking and debate. We just finished publishing the stories that we wrote in fantasy writing and they turned out really well! We read each others' books for the last day of class, and it was really awesome! In debate, we finished with a serious debate on Thursday, and we're having a fun debate today. Our serious debate was about Walmart, and whether they overwork and underpay their employees. Today we're debating the day program against the residential program! What was your story about in "Pirates, Princes, Planets"? It was about a little girl and her mom who were carving a jack-o-lantern for Halloween when three little aliens burst out of the pumpkin. It's about how the mom and daughter are trying to defeat the aliens before they take over the world. What makes the classes at Explo different from the classes you take at school? At school it's always a lot of work that's graded, so you have to really focus on just doing it right. The classes at Explo are a lot more fun because it's more comfortable and more casual between the students and the teachers. It's just really laid back and comfortable. You're taking classes with all of your friends, and your teachers are cooler. Also, there are different topics here than what we do in school. Like, in school your classes would just be math, or science, but at Explo you can take public speaking or Lego engineering. Those are things that you can't take at school, so it's a good opportunity. What are the teachers at Explo like? They're so nice! They're understanding and caring and just great all around! Jennie teaches my fantasy writing class and she's so awesome. We get to play a lot of games and do different things in her class. She's so nice and she makes everything fun. Cassidy teaches “Stand Up and Speak”. She's great, too. It's a class that sounds like it could be kind of boring, but she always keeps it really exciting. It's so much fun, but we're always learning and having a good time. What activities were your favorites? The first week all of my hall went to Talking in a Deep Voice. It was so much fun! My whole hall went to another activity called Man Power that both of my RAs lead together. We basically just went around pretending to flex, and we made dumbbells out of paper and pipe cleaners. It was awesome! What made them really good though was that the people who led them were fun. They were all run by staff that we felt really close too. Also, they were all really interesting and different things that you wouldn't ever do anywhere else. It's great because everyone gets really into it. What's your your hall like? Well, on the first day, some people were kind of quiet. There were people who knew each other, and had been here for three years, and for me it was a little intimidating at first. But in no time it was like every single one of us became really close with one another, and with our RAs. It was also cool to see some of the international students on our hall learn a bit more and start to be more comfortable talking. I learned a lot, too. There are two girls on my hall from South Korea, and a girl from China, and they've been teaching the rest of us Korean and Chinese. So one day we went around and said “hi” to a bunch of staff in Korean and Chinese. It was really a lot of fun. My RAs are Allie and Jacque and they're really indescribable. They're crazy in a good way. They always make everything fun. They talk to us a lot and just hang out with us on the hall. It feels like our hall is always together. They're just amazing! What is your favorite part of Explo? Meeting so many new people! There are people from all over the world, and it's awesome to get to know them. Everyone is so nice, too. I'll just walk up to random people on the quad and say “Hi, I'm Ginger, what's your name?” And no one thinks that that's weird, it's just a way to make a new friend. What does the word "Explo" mean to you? Explo means friendships, acceptance, and learning. But fun learning, not boring learning. And it's all of those things in one, and every word that means “amazing” or “awesome”. If Explo was a type of dessert, what would it be and why? Explo would be an ice cream sundae, because it's one big dessert with a bunch of little things on top that make it amazing. All of the different people here are like all of the toppings. more conversations > first session \| second session