senior program summer site : conversations : first session



	jeremy from new jersey (7/29) Jeremy is going into the 11th grade and he's enjoying his first year at Explo. He's enthusiastic about the friends he's making here, the classes he's taking, and the atmosphere in general. He likes to stay active with his mini-courses and would love to travel at some point. How many years have you been at Explo? This is my first year here and I'm really enjoying it. What are you enjoying about it? My favorite thing is just meeting all the kids from different countries. It's really cool meeting all the international students and hanging out with kids after curfew in our suites and stuff. I'm rooming with two kids from Lebanon. That's pretty cool, because I don't think I even knew where Lebanon was before this. And they taught you where it is? Yeah [laughs]. What other things are you learning from living with international students? You get a real taste of their culture . . . the kind of music they listen to, how they dress, how they act. Music's a little bit different, but we can adapt. I've been listening to my friends' music, they listen to our music, and we kind of get a blend of music now, so it's like cultural sharing, I guess. Have you found any difficulties in the situation? No, everyone seems very open and friendly. Everyone's willing to make friends, it's been great. Have you been able to make friends outside of your living group as well? Oh yeah, a lot. My friends and I just go around and every person we see we introduce ourselves to. I introduce myself as "Jeremy from Jersey", and it's kind of a catchy name so everyone knows me. What are you taking for your first course? My first course is engineering. It's really cool. Our teacher started introducing us to pre-calculus, so I'm getting a head start for next year. We've been learning about how different shapes affect construction of buildings. The pros and cons -- like, if you're going to build a skyscraper, why you'd use maybe a square instead of a triangle or vice versa. Triangles would be stronger as a support, but as a con, you can't build as much because there are only three angles to build from, whereas a square can't support as much weight but you have more area to build on. What about your second course? My second class is business. It's a great class, I love it. There's a huge diverse group in my business class, kids from all over the country. We've been doing a lot of model scenes from the real world, and it's been different than anything I've done in my business classes in school. We're not learning out of a text book; we're actually experiencing what it might be like to be the manager of a business in real life. We're acting it out. What else is coming in that class? Do you have a final project ahead? Yeah, we're going to have to make a final project. I think our instructor said we're going to have to manage a music business, but I'm not sure yet. What's your mini-course right now? My mini-course is touch football. I love to be active, so I figured that was a good chance to do it. That's out at the fields; we take a bus out there. What's your upcoming mini-course? My next mini-course is basketball. Got to stay active! Have you been encouraged to try new things since you came here? I've actually never really met any international kids or kids from outside my area before this. I lived in New York, Illinois, and New Jersey, and that's really all I've known. I didn't know any kids from California or Virginia or any other places like that . . . and I love all the international kids, the Italians, the Venezuelans, all that. It makes me interested in traveling. Do you think you'll keep in contact and travel to see these friends? Oh, definitely. Did you go on any trips this weekend? I did the volleyball clinic. It was pretty good: we took lessons from the Yale women's coach so that was very informative. I play volleyball at my school. Do you think this helped your game? Yeah, I do. How does it feel to be on Yale's campus? It's beautiful. I've been to a bunch of campuses looking at colleges and this is definitely one of the nicest ones. I've seen Penn State, Cornell, Delaware, and University of Maryland, and this is definitely my favorite so far. If you had to describe Explo as an object, what would it be? I'd say silly putty -- every day seems to be different. You can make it different shapes every time you have it. Every day you're doing something different, meeting new people. There are so many people here you can never really meet them all -- just like you can never really see every silly putty shape. And if you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be? I'd probably be a blender. I like to mingle with a lot of different people and just, you know, meet everyone. I don't like to be by myself, staying in one place, doing the same things. more conversations > first session \| second session