Hi! Just got back from an incredible experience at the Stanford Summer Humanities Institute. I had my first taste of college dorm life and took a course on The Age of Jefferson, taught by Professor Caroline Winterer. We explored Thomas Jefferson and his world--we read Locke, Buffon, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, as well as a bunch of Jefferson's letters (imagine getting an email that made your scrollbar a centimeter long--I feel that's the equivalent of the average letter from Thomas Jefferson in today's era). The class was essentially a 10-week-long college humanities course squished into the box of three weeks. We had lectures with our professor every morning and discussion sections led by the Graduate TAs each afternoon. In between, we had study hall, activities/Mandatory Fun Time, and free time (for shenanigans!) The whole experience was flat-out amazing. All the SHI folks lived together in BOB (cause cool dorms have equally cool nicknames). Our dorm theme was cats (BOBcats, haha), and cat memes overran the place. The RCs (Resident Counselors) were really committed when they decorated the interior. We ate meals at the dining hall, a short walk down the road. The food was pretty good--I wish I could take home their crusty macaroni & cheese and baked eggplant--and there was always dessert to look forward to. The Stanford campus itself was just a fantastic place to be, in general. For our research projects, we got access to the incredible Green Library and Stanford's Special Collections (I got to touch Ben Franklin's signature with my bare fingers, how cool is that?!!). Unfortunately, I can't provide pictures of the Special Collections items :(. _____ OTHER ADVENTURES: A CAMPFIRE, THE BEACH, DOWNTOWN, AND THE ZOO! One night, the RCs took us out to the fire pit by Lake Lag. We played campfire games and sang songs ('course, I brought my uke), and made s'mores, which I still haven't mastered. Apparently you should melt the chocolate a bit on the graham cracker by balancing the cracker on two sticks over the fire. No one tried that, so we all had warm, fluffy marshmallows with crunchy crackers and even crunchier squares of Hershey's milk chocolate. Not that I'm complaining, I like it just the way it is. But, I do think a softer, more melty piece of chocolate would really take it up a notch. Or Nutella, hmm... [Mini-tangent that I'm remembering: I stepped in a half-burnt, gooey marshmallow on the ground--pretty much like stepping in gum, except a LOT stickier--took some time to clean that off.] Also, for some reason there were fireworks going on nearby (early Fourth of July celebration?) For our first Sunday field trip, we all piled onto a bus and headed to Capitola Beach (I'd never been before, though I live in the Bay Area). The weather was nice and the water was ice-cold. We built a lumpy sandcastle/trench warfare simulation field for mice. I find that beach towns typically have art galleries or even outdoor art/craft shops, both were true of Capitola the day we went. I got some ideas for watercolors. The second weekend, we went on an afternoon trip to downtown Palo Alto, a short walk from the Stanford campus. There were plenty of shops and restaurants, including a whimsical candy/soda pop store, with even more whimsical soda pop flavors. Oh, and the San Francisco Zoo field trip! Now, something actually art-related: if you're interested in drawing animals (or even people), I'd highly recommend going to the zoo to sketch them. Be prepared to fill up lots of pages! Here are just a few I did (click for full image!) _____ On some lecture/discussion days, I went to the classroom early and did a chalkboard drawing. Here are a couple I did: The last week of the program, we were all working on our final research papers. Now, this was a nontraditional essay in that we were asked to choose five primary sources before coming up with a thesis, then form the thesis by somehow tying all five sources together to reveal something about Thomas Jefferson's world. I decided to write mine on Thomas Jefferson's opinions of the French people (while doing my best to avoid talking about the French Revolution). It was undoubtedly the most challenging essay I have ever written, while also the most intriguing and insightful. We had to cobble together a 10-page research paper in one-tenth of the time normal college students had. Needless to say, it was an insane week. The morning of deadline day (the papers were all due at noon), the dorm was in chaos. I was still making edits up to 11:56 AM. Then, our one remaining printer (the other one broke down earlier in the week) ran out of paper just as it was printing mine (cue heroic music as I run for more paper and slam the paper tray closed again). I turned mine in at precisely 11:58 AM. Success! The flood of relief and amazing feeling of accomplishment were unreal.
We ended the program with a brilliant talent show (put on and MCed by students), an all-night slumber party (watched Mean Girls until 2 AM), and plenty of hugs and tears (I carried around a box of tissues on Farewell Day). It was an incredible experience, from all the things I learned to the people I met (honestly an really diverse, smart, and downright rad crowd, from all over the United States and even the world). I'm definitely glad I got the chance to go to SHI, and highly recommend it to any high-schooler wanting to know what a college humanities student experience is like and looking for an amazing time. You don't have to take my word for it, though. Check it out for yourself! Here's the website that started it all for me. Cheers! Clem
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