Some students see summer as a time to kick back and relax after a busy school year. Others use it as an opportunity to pick up short-term work and a few dollars. And for some high-achieving students, summer is an adventuresome time to expand their knowledge outside the traditional classroom. Here’s a few of their stories.
Satarra Troutman, a rising senior at North Atlanta High School, aspires to be a singer, musician and composer. So last week, she was back at the school for a weeklong summer jazz camp and a chance to hone her skills on the double bass and electric bass with the help of instructors from world-renown The Juilliard School in New York. It was her second time attending the camp and the third music-camp she has lined up this summer. Another "Grammy camp" will take her to the West Coast, and, almost as soon as she debarks the return flight home, she'll be back at school for band camp.
"We're not vacationing. We're not at the beach," she said. "But this is a pretty fun equivalent."
Satarra was at camp with North Atlanta classmate and rising senior Babatunde Woodard-James, who loves playing jazz and alto sax but plans to pursue a career in engineering. He said the camp has taught him the value of collaboration and important lessons, such as the fact that tone and style are critical.
"Notes are really secondary to that," he said. "I've learned a lot, and I know more of what I need to do to help myself."
This is the fourth year for the camp, which is open to students in grades 6 through 12 with varying levels of talent and knowledge, said Reginald Colbert, who runs the performing arts program at North Atlanta. Seventy-two students, many of them aspiring jazz musicians, signed up for this year's five-day, 9-to-5 camp, he said.
Dr. Carl Allen, a camp instructor from Juilliard, said the objective is to nurture and support the young jazz musician.
"When you are young and playing jazz, it's hard to imagine that there are other people your age who share your passion. Other kids are playing basketball, at the mall or hanging out with friends," Allen said. "Being in this kind of environment with other like-minded kids is important, and we try to give them the tools they need, validate their vision and help them become better musicians."
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When the French celebrate Bastille Day on July 14, three students from North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee will be among the throngs marking the day in Paris.
Lizzie Clark, Amanda Wall and Alicia Howard will be winding up a 12-day, all-expenses paid trip to France, where they will have immersed themselves in the culture and language. The latter will be a necessity, Lizzie said, since their hosts will be speaking nothing but French.
But this is just what Lizzie -- a rising senior who hopes to pursue a career in linguistics -- wants. She has taken French in high school, has Spanish on her senior year schedule and wants to study Russian and Arabic in college.
“When I was younger, my family traveled a lot,” she said. “I was always interested in other cultures and languages.”
Amanda and Alicia are hoping the trip, which melds environmental projects with some sight-seeing, will help improve their French.
“I want to be fluent some day,” Amanda said.
Amanda’s taken two years of French and plans to take it again next year, her junior year. Alicia has been studying it for three years.
The Consulate of France is paying their way, as three of seven winners nationally of a contest to promote planet conservation.
The winning entry for Lizzy was a four-minute video in which she played a newscaster and interviewed a friend, a teacher and the owner of a local French bakery on their ideas on conservation. The interview with the baker was in French.
This is not Lizzy’s first trip abroad. She was in France last summer on a school trip and previously spent a month in Africa.
Amanda, who is currently ranked third in her class, won a contest last year that landed her a trip to South Africa for the World Cup.
“I definitely like adventure,” she said. “I try my hardest to have something to do every summer.”
She’s cashiering at Best Buy this summer, but hopes -- after she returns from France -- to start working as a computer specialist for the chain.
Alicia is working this summer with the Youth Conservation Corps, helping to maintain trails in the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area.
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Sitan “Stan” Chen, a rising senior at Northview High School in Johns Creek, has been enthralled with mathematics since middle school. That’s also about the time he heard about a summer camp that MIT in Boston has for high school juniors.
About 1,000 students applied last fall, and, in March, Stan learned he was among 40 chosen. He arrived about a week ago and will spend six weeks doing research with an MIT math professor.
Math and music are Stan’s passions.
“They’re pretty similar,” he said. “Both call for a high level of creativity. The only difference is math is a bit more difficult.”
Stan’s been playing the piano since he was 5. He’s an accomplished pianist and violinist, having performed twice at Carnegie Hall.
He also likes fencing, volunteering at his local library and was described recently by a Fulton County school official as one of the system’s “resident geniuses.”
