senior program summer site : conversations : first session



	yasmine from morocco (7/28) Yasmine comes from Morocco and is in her first year at Explo. She's going into the 12th grade. She really enjoys her classes and the way things are taught here compared with her school back home. She's surprised by how quickly time flies at the Senior Program and notices that Explo changes people for the better. Why don't you tell me about the trips you've gone on so far? On Wednesday I went to Trinity and Wesleyan University [for the college tours]. Yesterday I went to see Chicago. I personally prefer the movie, but the musical was good, too. Today I went to Hairspray, which was awesome. Way better than Chicago. I loved the colors. Is this your first time in America? No, I came like three or four years ago to visit colleges and stuff. I've been to New York -- we drove around the east coast. Had you been to a Broadway show before? No, but I've been to a musical in London. How do they compare? I watched Mary Poppins, which they also show over here. It's different because it was in London, but at the same time I think it's the same people doing it all over the world sometimes. What's your first course? My first course is music theory and composition. It's really nice because I studied music theory in French and Arabic and now I have to, like, change all my words into English. And it's really interesting to compare the way people teach in different places. I find here that they teach better than in my conservatory, so I'm going to learn hopefully a lot of things. What are some things you hope to learn? Well, here we're learning how to use technical words to describe music -- not just like, "This music is awesome," or, "This music is cool." We use more technical words to make us sound smart, which is nice. And the teacher's really fun. Can you give me any examples -- with the music from Hairspray, perhaps? Well, we just started, so I can't remember them all right now! I have my little notebook with all the words. Like, we have "function of the instruments" and stuff like that, but I still have to learn them. Sorry. I don't sound smart now, but by the end, hopefully I will. No worries. Do you have a musical background? Yeah, I played the piano when I was, like, tiny -- I can't remember when. Then when I was about six I started playing the lute, which is typically Arab. I actually brought it with me because I thought I needed it for my class, though I'm not sure now. It was heavy to carry around, so hopefully I will. It's sort of like a guitar but a bit bigger. Will you play it in the talent show? Yeah, I can play something. Sure! What about your second course? I take speech writing, and I actually love it. One of the reasons I wanted to take it is because we were going to read some speeches from Obama and Hillary. I don't know, I'm from Morocco, but I love the elections in America and I watch every day to see what's happening. So I wanted to analyze the speeches and stuff. It's interesting. And also to learn to write better. And are you getting to do those things? Yeah. The first day we read a speech from Hillary and had to say why the speech was strong or not, and I think the teacher was trying to see our level, whether we could explain well or not. Hopefully, by the end we will be able to write a great speech. That's the final project. I love writing. Are you taking a mini-course? I'm taking SAT prep for math, since I'm really bad at the SATs. I'm not bad at math in school, but I don't function well the way the SATs require people to function. Do you find it difficult to meet people here? No, not at all, actually. It's really easy to meet people. You just have to walk up and say, "Hey, I'm from Morocco," and then people are like, "That's cool." Then that's it, you get to know them -- like, you have lunch with them that day. Do you have a favorite thing so far at Explo? I really enjoyed the main event Ise Lyfe -- the guy that was talking about how people think and that people should change their way of thinking. It was funny: he told us to put our heads down and then he asked, "Who thinks Asians can't drive?" or "Who thinks black people are scary?" And then whoever thought that would put their hand up. Then when we finished there were some weird results -- like, many people said they were scared of black people and stuff like that. It was nice how he explained that we could not have put our hands up if we had our heads up, because we would be scared of the reaction of others, but with our heads down it was easier. It was really interesting. Did he then challenge people's stereotypes? Yeah, he sort of revolted against these things and tried to change our perceptions. I think the result was positive and he was very inspirational. Do you have any advice for someone coming to Explo for the first time? I don't know -- come and you'll see [laughs]. Also, pick any course you really want to do because they're all fun. Don't just try to look at titles that look fun because everything is fun. And if you had to describe Explo as an object, what would it be? Hmm . . . an airplane. You enter the plane, which is like entering Explo, and the thing moves really quickly. I haven't finished the three weeks yet, but by the end, it's like getting to the place where you were going on the plane and it's just moved so quickly. By the end of a flight, you've reached another place and it's the same thing here: you become a different person or you've reached or discovered something different about yourself. more conversations > first session \| second session