A High School Summer Writing Program

Abstract

or some who live on a school calendar, the summer is for RR a summer without school was one reward for success. But there is a new breed: top students who want an edge for college applications, have a desire to truly excel, and/or simply need to do something-be it math or poetry-more than they need fun in the sun. These skilled and motivated students populate advanced summer programs where they are able to concentrate on the subject of their interest without the competition of other classes and school activities. The Columbia University Summer Program for High School Students, founded in 1986, is a nonresidential program with students on campus from 9:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Students take courses ranging from Global Politics to Explorations in Genetics and Molecular Biology, or they take a more generalized college preparation program. Classes typically meet for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. In the first year, students who selected creacouple of writing workshops. We created the Writing Division, which consisted of introductory and advanced workshop sections--virtually a standalone unit within the larger program. It’s a dreary morning in early July. Walking up Broadway to Columbia University, my mind feels as foggy as the weather: I’ve just wound down from the academic year and now I’m headed back to campus, trying to wind up again for the high school program. Four weeks to go until August, with its promise of mornings writing, afternoons in parks and cafes, evenings at the movies. But first there’s this job. As I arrive on campus, 1 see signs directing students to the high school program registration, and as I follow the arrows-even though 1 could find the building blindfolded-1 remember the first time 1 entered the Columbia University campus, for a journalism conference during my senior year of high school. I remember the anticipation, nervousness, and, most of all, the yearning to be among other young writers and teachers who knew what it was like to be a reporter. The students are cramped into a lecture hall. They listen to welcoming speeches from administrators and staff, are told of doors that are always open, and then are introduced to the faculty. 1 stand and wave, scanning the three-hundred faces, wondering which thirty are in the writing division. At the end of orientation, the writing students are asked to meet