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Esther Rosbrook, Director, ALANA Cultural Center, 91����Ƶ

Ever feel like there’s a lot coming at you, school, expectations, decisions about your future?

This workshop is about building the mindset and skills to lead yourself through it all.

In this interactive, hands-on seminar, you’ll explore how your thoughts, habits, and environment shape your experience, and how you can take ownership of them. We’ll discuss what it means to lead yourself with purpose, especially when things get challenging. You’ll learn how to identify what drives you, align your actions with your values, and develop strategies to stay focused, confident, and resilient—both in and out of the classroom.

This is a space for real conversations and practical tools, not therapy. Come ready to engage, think critically, and take the lead in your own journey.

Kyle Hutchinson, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, 91����Ƶ

Over the course of three weeks, we will use music-theoretic tools to unpack the ways in which music reflects dramaturgic elements in Broadway musicals. In the first week, we will look at how very local effects such as harmony, melody, and scales, reflect a "note-for-word or phrase-for-gesture correspondence between score and stage” (Magee, 2000). In the second week, we will investigate how music can play a more structural role, considering larger-scale organization such as key relationships and thematic development. In the final week, we will consider ways in which musical synthesis (or lack thereof) reflects dramatic outcomes, and consider the ways in which our analyses over the three weeks suggests a distinct relationship between musical theater and late nineteenth-century opera (Wagner, R. Strauss, Puccini). Musicals that may be considered include: Oklahoma!, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, The Phantom of the Opera, Into the Woods, Jekyll and Hyde, Wicked, Hairspray, and The Woman in White.

Miguel Roman, Lecturer in Linguistics and Coordinator, Less Commonly Taught Languages, 91����Ƶ

This hands-on course introduces students to the fundamentals of linguistic analysis, all while designing their very own language. Drawing on examples from natural language, students will first be exposed to universal elements of pronunciation and grammar, before choosing which elements to incorporate into their own languages. The course ends with a discussion of how culture and language interact, presenting a more critical eye on our own use and perception of language. Students will be encouraged, but not required, to present their own language as it develops throughout the course sessions.

Brenda Sanya, Associate Professor of Educational Studies, 91����Ƶ

The American School is a crucial and often contentious aspect of U.S. society. This seminar will engage participants in exploring the intricate relationship between education and society, focusing on how various segments of the American population have been impacted by key educational policies, experiments, and movements. It will be particularly relevant to high school students interested in education, law, policy, community engagement, and the liberal arts.

Rob Davis, Associate Professor of Mathematics, 91����Ƶ

Modern society is deeply mathematical: our political and social institutions are built upon mathematical foundations. In each session of this seminar, we will encounter and wrestle with the mathematics that underpin a different aspect of society. First, students will think about the different ways of deciding who wins an election. What are the strengths of these methods and what pitfalls might they be hiding? Next, students will think about the people representing us in Congress -- namely, how many people are representing us. Are there enough representatives? If not, how many more should we have? Finally, students will investigate the geometry of voting districts to see when one political party has an advantage over the other. How can we tell if there has been some manipulation going on, and what could be done about it? No advanced mathematics background is expected or necessary.

James Watkins, Professor of Biology, 91����Ƶ

This seminar introduces high school students to the world of plant environmental biology—the study of how plants respond to and interact with their environment. Through lecture discussions, and lab observations, students will discover the adaptations plants have evolved to thrive in diverse conditions.