New Jersey Scholars Program

Summer hasn't really been summer for me this summer. For the second summer in a row I decided to do something academic with my school-free ten weeks. In other words, I went back to school. Last summer I went to the University of Pennsylvania to take courses (for fun and for credit), and totally loved the experience. It was a great intro to college, I met a lot of cool people, and the courses I took were really fun. I didn't take it for placement, it was really just for fun. Intro to Philosophy with Prof. Hilgers and Intro to Decision Theory with Prof. Sen were the courses I took, and both really broadened my interests and taught me a lot. I'd never been away from home for any long period of time, so it was great to get used to living on my own for six weeks, being independent, taking care of myself, having a roommate, and making friends out of strangers. I suggest a program like that to any high schooler who has a free summer; I've never experienced those CTY programs, but taking real undergrad courses with undergraduates was really great. It motivated the hell out of me too, because you can get into summer programs at schools that are out of your range. Knowing that I would be comfortable at an Ivy, that it wasn't pretentious, and knowing that I'm capable of the work gave me a lot of confidence, and doing a summer program is a great way to push your borders.

This summer I was looking into a similar program at Harvard (again, I can only get in because it's a summer program) when I heard about the NJ Scholars Program. The Program was a five week seminar on Human Rights, examining the topic through four different disciplines: Literature/Law, History/Politics, Religion/Philosophy, and the Arts. I wasn't originally excited (the website didn't look that impressive, and the alternative was Harvard), and I did the application without a whole lot of enthusiasm. Then I got to the second part of the application process, the interview phase, and I realized how awesome this program was going to be. The campus did not look like a high school campus, it was way too impressive, and the interview itself was fun and interesting. I'm absolutely happy I got in, even though I know my summer would have been great no matter what.

The choice was a little difficult; getting the course guide for Harvard and looking at all of the cool courses was kind of painful, knowing that I couldn't take any of them. I'm happy with the decision I made though, NJSP was amazing. The first few days were exciting, and it's always great meeting other kids knowing that no one knows anybody, but that everybody wants to meet everybody else. We jumped right in and had readings to do the first night, after Mr. Sauerman warned us about crossing route 206 of course (you will die!). Monday through Friday our mornings began with a lecture from 8:30 to 10 with one of the four professors (Kate Dodd for Art, Amy Glenn for Religion/Philosophy, Champ Atlee for Literature, and Nina McCune for History/Politics). Then we'd split into 3 groups of 13 (there were 39 of us) and have our seminars from 10:15 to 11:45, which were discussion oriented classes with one of the professors. After lunch, we'd have another seminar from 1:30 to 3, and then the rest of the day was ours. We would relax in the library (which was air conditioned, unlike our dorm), do the readings for our seminars, and hang out with each other until curfew (and sometimes past it).

I learned a lot about human rights, and our coursework was fun and interesting, but I also learned a lot about the people I was working with. Everyone got very familiar with the mannerisms of the individual teachers, and our resident impressionist Mike Sotsky managed to replicate Mr. Atlee. I learned about my peers too; the diversity of the community we formed was impressive. I'm not a religious person, but there were people there who were Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus. We had musicians, athletes, and nerds of all denominations. We had Disney sing-alongs, Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, and every kind of intellectual debate you could think of (especially at 4 in the morning). It's that diversity that made those discussions possible. If I had to describe NJSP in a few words, it would be "a community of intellectuals". I don't mean a bunch of elitist snobs, or pretentious nerds, I mean a group of people who really loved learning about each other and about the world.

I made a lot of lasting friendships, and I'm sure we'll be having plenty of reunions. As an unexpected bonus, I also met an amazing girl who I'm lucky enough to now call my girlfriend. She's smart, fun, and a great match for me. When I say great match though, I don't mean that we're the same kind of people, although in a lot of respects we are. The great thing is that we're very different people in some very important ways: she's religious, I'm a skeptic; she's from an all-girls Catholic school, I'm from a really big public school; and most importantly, she's emotional and I'm definitely not. We've learned a lot from each other, and she's made me more comfortable with being a little more emotional.

In the end I brought a lot away from the program. I really feel that I'm ready for college now, and I'm going to go into senior year with more motivation and more confidence. I've learned a lot about myself, others, and the world, and I've produced what I feel is one of the best papers that I've ever written. This summer, even though it isn't over yet, has meant a lot to me, and I'll remember it for a long time.