Hazelwood students return from arts, scholars academies
They came, they saw and they absorbed. Nine Hazelwood high school students trekked off to two different learning academies this summer. Seven attended the Missouri Scholars Academy in Columbia while the other two visited the campus of Missouri State University in Springfield for the Missouri Fine Arts Academy.
Life in Columbia seemed to suit Hazelwood East juniors Jannah Rahaman and Alexandria Seay.
“I thought it would be really strict but we actually had a lot of free time,” she said. “The classes were extremely interesting. Every night we had at least three classes to choose from.”
Students had both “majors” and “minors” during their three-week stay at the University of Missouri. Examples included African-American History Through the Stages and It’s pHun, It’s a Gas, It’s Chemistry! as well as Acting for Non-Actors and Forensics.
“I think it was the African dancers I liked best,” Rahaman said. “I got to play the djembe drums too.”
Seay praised the three-week course. It was the opposite of the “nerd camp” – with wall-to-wall chess matches and computer rooms – that she anticipated.
“It was probably the best experience I have had so far in my life,” she said. “The Scholars Camp was not the way I expected it to be. I have made a lot of new friends that I’m keeping in contact with. I have learned as much as I learned in school but here, there were practical applications to what I learned. The way they taught the information made me remember it more and made it more meaningful to me.”
At Hazelwood West, juniors Joshua Armstrong, Jordan Johnson and Maureen Vigland also attended the Scholars Camp while classmate Elizabeth Kirchhoff went to the Fine Arts Academy.
“What I did when I was there was to experience as much as I could,” Johnson said. She said the African-American studies and presentations impressed her. “I learned about the history of the Hispanics and the Native Americans. The camp is very hands-on and interactive.”
Armstrong would give current sophomores this advice about attending if they are undecided. “They might be skeptical about the camp, but it’s one of those things you have to try for yourself. I did and I don’t regret it.”
Maureen Vigland, who is a regular guest columnist in the North County Journal newspaper, continued that theme at Scholars Camp.
“I chose a writing class as my major,” Vigland said. “My teacher was amazing. He reviewed everyone’s work and he shared his own writings with us. It was neat to have enough time to try anything I wanted to there.” Vigland said she sampled poetry, short story writing and one-act plays as well.
At Hazelwood Central, juniors Shawn Bodden and Katharine Finley attended Scholars Camp while senior Abby Meyer journeyed to Springfield.
Bodden outlined a typical camp day. “We live in dorms while we’re there. After breakfast, you go to your major classes until lunch. After you eat, there was a big meeting where evening activities were detailed then you went to your minor classes or to your afternoon speaker. After that, it was dinner followed by evening activities, a house meeting and then bed.” Bodden “majored” in Socratic Seminars and “minored” in Introductory Psychology.
For Finley, Scholars Camp “was extremely great, a once-in-a-lifetime chance. I probably will not do anything like it again. I liked a lot of the speakers in the evening because they were nationally known people.” She said she enjoyed Bill Bondeson’s presentation on medical ethics, as well as the presentations on archaeology and genetics.
A little farther south and west, Kirchhoff and Meyer enjoyed their own activities at Fine Arts camp.
“People there were incredible,” Kirchhoff said. “They built this atmosphere that a lot of people did not expect before. The whole thing was fantastic.”
“There are a group of disabled people doing presentations. They were really incredible people,” Meyer said. She referred to the DisAbility Project, a theatre troupe from That Uppity Theater Company in St. Louis. “They don’t like it if you stare but they don’t mind if you talk to them,” she said, outlining a couple of facts she learned from the seminar.
“I have learned so many things, it’s hard to pick just one favorite thing,” Meyer said. “There are so many talented people, you thought you didn’t deserve to be there but by the end of the three weeks, I realized I did have something to contribute.”