This seminar was designed to provide information and resources about beneficial summer enrichment opportunities for students. The information included below pertains to a number of the key topics that were covered during seminar.
Student Testimonials
“I participated in a summer enrichment program called Engineers in Motion through Ohio State University during one of my high school summers. It was about a week long, and very worth it. During high school, I was very open to many different career possibilities, and going to Engineers in Motion gave me a very unique insight to the different fields of engineering. Each day in the program featured different types of engineering, such as Mechanical, Environmental, Electrical, Materials Science, and more. Before attending this program, I had clumped all of these into just something called 'engineering'. After this program, I started thinking about the different types, my mind starting to focus on certain types. Although this program was only about a week long, it really provided a great introduction to engineering, and really gave me an opportunity to understand more about engineering and gave me a chance to truly see how interested I was in engineering. It was a great program, and I made great friends along the way. Some of these friends and I still keep in touch, and we often talk about our aspirations and our goals for the future, in the context of engineering and what we learned during that week. Additionally, being on a college campus was an awesome experience. Not only were we taught by college professors, giving us a sneak preview of college-styled lectures, but we also interacted with college students. Seeing how passionate the college students were about their respective subjects excited me, as well. For me, as a high school student, getting a glimpse of college life really was amazing. It excited me about all the possibilities of college life, and got my mind thinking about my own future and what I want to do.”
-College Sophomore
“I did the Ashland University enrichment program the summer prior to my sophomore year. That was such an eye-opening experience to me because I got to interact with students with a wide range of academic interests -- I was there for a math program, but others were there for poetry, neuroscience, microbiology, and more -- but also meet similarly highly motivated. This was a program specifically for Ohio gifted students; so it was amazing to see how many students would take a week out of their summer for learning more about their interests (and having fun, too!). This may sounds cliché, but honestly, making friendships that last to this day has been invaluable in so many ways. Having friends you can trust in places removed from where you live builds such a strong support network for any endeavor!”
-College Freshman
“I was able to find my own summer enrichment opportunity. I knew I wanted to have some research experience before college because I was planning to have a career in science, so I drafted an email to send to professors at OSU who were involved in labs requesting the opportunity to shadow them over the summer. Eventually, I was able to land a position in a pharmacology lab at a university. As a high school student, I was not able to perform most procedures in the lab, but I was able to shadow the undergrad and grad students, which was a great opportunity. I learned a lot about what research is like in college and how to balance schoolwork with extracurricular activities like research. By the end of the summer, I had learned basic procedures like cell duplication and PCR and I was to give a powerpoint presentation on the lab’s topic of interest and the completed research. This allowed me to learn about the research more in depth and take away more from the opportunity as a whole. Academically, I had the opportunity to work with a college professor who is very passionate about his work. Doing so, I learned a lot about the field of pharmacology and pharmacy in general as career choices. The hands-on activities in a working environment gave me a much more in depth experience than I would have had in a traditional high school environment. Summer enrichment opportunities are a great way to get a taste of the real world and find out about different career choices. One could spend their summer lazing around at home and reveling in the lack of homework, but then they would be more ill prepared for college and beyond than someone who took advantage of the time to learn something beyond the traditional classroom during the traditional school year.”
-College Junior
Permission Statement
This article is provided as a service of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to supporting profoundly gifted young people 18 and under. To learn more about the Davidson Institute’s programs, please visit www.DavidsonGifted.org.
The appearance of any information in the Davidson Institute's Database does not imply an endorsement by, or any affiliation with, the Davidson Institute. All information presented is for informational purposes only and is solely the opinion of and the responsibility of the author. Although reasonable effort is made to present accurate information, the Davidson Institute makes no guarantees of any kind, including as to accuracy or completeness. Use of such information is at the sole risk of the reader.