High School / Pre-College
Enrichment: Discovery Tracks
The
Discovery Track offers dozens of classes covering an incredibly
wide range of interesting subjects. This is your chance to explore
new ideas, skills and experiences in a friendly atmosphere of
discovery and growth. Why not try
something for the first time? We have several groups for each
class and will make sure you’re in the right one for your
level of experience.
In the morning, campers have the option of taking either FOUR Discovery Tracks or TWO Discovery Tracks and ONE Focus Track. Morning classes meet for 90 minutes per day on either Monday, Wednesday and Friday (MWF), or Tuesday and Thursday (TTh). When combining Discovery Tracks with a Focus Track, please be sure to select courses on alternate days. Campers choose their Morning Discovery courses for the full session while completing their application.
Each week, all students will choose two Exploration Workshops — offered from 1:00 to 2:30 — from a list that changes weekly. Take your morning program a little further, or try something completely different. Click here for a course list: Exploration Workshops.
Advertising: Campaign Design
Our advertising course will help you learn how to brand and market yourself and your fantasy business. You’ll learn how to establish your brand identity, define your audience, recognize a strong advertising idea, and design ad campaigns for print and online.
Architecture: Dream, Design, Develop
The art and science of designing is not limited to structures. Explore landscape design, urban planning, town planning as well as traditional building design. Create design ideas for your own home, building, park or city.
Architecture: Model Construction
Ever had a great architectural idea but didn’t know how to make it a reality? Nothing brings a design to life as vividly as a scale model. Better than an artist’s rendering or a 3D computer drawing, a well-crafted scale model gives dreams tangible form. Learn how to use your hands to see your dreams come alive.
Art: Drawing & Painting
No experience needed — just open eyes and an open mind! Have you ever wondered how an artist sees the world and then gets it down on paper or canvas? Let’s find out together.
This track is a crash course in artistic vision and skills. First, we’ll develop our awareness of shape and form, using sketching pencils and charcoal to do gesture and contour drawings. We’ll experiment with all kinds of media — from ink and pastels to anything we find in the studio. You’ll learn a variety of watercolor techniques, including wet-in-wet, blooms, and how salt and plastic wrap can be used to create texture. Next up: working with acrylics, as we produce a large masterpiece with a contemporary twist. Come and begin to express yourself through art.
Chess: Tactics & Strategy
Come play the world’s most popular board game, while learning winning tactics, precise terminology and the finer points of strategy. Best of all, you’ll get to play the game against a variety of opponents. So come and challenge your new friends for the chance to have the final word: “Checkmate!”
Chinese: Tourist Talk
Chinese is spoken by about one-fifth of the world’s population. It outnumbers any other language in the world and is actually easier than it looks. We’ll introduce you to basic Chinese words and pronunciation. If you are traveling to China for the Olympics or just want to visit some day, we’ll teach you the key phrases that will help you most.
CIA Spy Training: Intelligence & Analysis
Do you love watching characters such as Jack Bauer, James Bond and Jason Bourne? Want to know how the government really accesses information, filters intelligence reports and helps the president make important decisions?
We’ll discover some of the CIA’s secret spying tools, surveillance systems and the latest technology. At the end of the session, it’s your turn. We’ll set up a scenario where the security of the country is in your hands. What vital information will you uncover and how will you interpret the evidence?
Computers: 3D Flash Animation
Deep down, every designer wants to be an animator. Using Macromedia Flash we’ll teach you how to create stunning animations using basic tweening and frame-by-frame techniques. Draw simple characters, prepare them for animation and add expression and motion to create your own short clip.
Computers: Game Programming
Great computer games don’t just jump from your mind to your computer. In fact, many game developers consider programming to be one of the last (and easiest) parts of the game development process. Even the simplest games, like Tetris or Pong, were planned extensively, without a computer, before a single line of code was written. So, grab your pencil and paper and let’s get started. Characters, conflicts, environments and playability — it’s all up to you. Then it’ll be onto your keyboard to program your very own game creation.
Computers: Internet, Apps & Web Page Design
If you intend to become a credentialed webmaster or online publisher or just want to post your own homepage or blog, this is the course for you.
Through a series of hands-on lessons, you’ll acquire the essential tools and skills needed to build Web pages. The pages you create will include graphics, animation, sound, video, forms, mouseovers, scrolling banners and more. Coursework includes an introduction to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), scanning, creating graphics, and audio and video compression for the web. Work with Google websites and Apple and Facebook applications.
Cooking: Fast, Fresh & Fun!
Chanterelle or shiitake? Couscous or coulis? Thyme or tarragon? Which is it? Or try this one: What type of restaurant are you in if you’re ordering Coconut Panna Cotta? Here’s where you’ll find out.
If you like food, you’ll love this cooking track. We’ll turn you on to new and unusual foods, and teach you about their availability, freshness and preparation. You’ll watch our expert chefs at work and, best of all, sample the tasty results. Plus, for students wanting a little hands-on experience, there will be opportunities to assist in the demonstrations.
Cooking: Seasonal Sensations
Locally-grown bounty will take center stage as we create dishes with the season’s freshest ingredients. You’ll learn how to create the perfect menus for hot summer days. Come, eat and enjoy American summer favorites in our “edible education”!
Dance: Move to a Different Beat
This high-energy class will take you on a journey around the world as you dance to the ethnic beats of Africa, Spain, the Caribbean Islands and many other cultures. Creating original routines from basic dance techniques and your natural ability, we’ll work out our own original choreography based on class makeup and interest.
Dance: Street Styles to Salsa
Straight from the streets of New York and L.A., experience cutting edge choreography to rival today’s top music videos. Learn funky, innovative dance routines broken down into simple step-by-step instructions. Then dance till you drop to high-energy Latin music while learning the salsa, cha-cha and merengue. You will learn correct salsa technique and a variety of steps you will love.
Drama: Life on Stage
We’ll teach you techniques to improve the quality of your auditions, ways to develop a character, how to memorize your lines and rehearsal exercises. Practice will include a variety of short skits and scenes.
Environment: Going Green
Did you know you could help the environment by changing a light bulb, bringing your own mug to Starbucks, saving water and reusing plastic bags? Start small and make big changes step by step. You can have a huge impact on the world in which you live.
Fashion: Industry Icons
The history of fashion is a catalog of glittering names: Yves St. Laurent, Givenchy, Christian Dior, Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang, Kate Spade and more. How have they stood the test of time? And how have they changed history? This course will consider the work and significance of these and other important designers.
Fashion: Project Runway
Do you look at the latest fashions from the top designers and wish you could create those kinds of designs and outfits? Here’s the place to get started.
You’ll begin with your own concept, then step by step turn it into a completed piece. Working individually with your instructor, you’ll learn how to illustrate your design, choose the color and fabrics to make it work, and put it all together in a finished garment or accessory.
Whether you sew it, zip it, tape it or glue it, you’re sure to create a fashion item that’s uniquely you.
Fencing: Saber & Blade
When you hear the word “swordplay,” what images come to mind? The swashbuckling Three Musketeers? Armor-clad knights clanging heavy broadswords along castle walls or on fields of battle? Here’s another approach.
This class will introduce you to the ancient, elegant sport of fencing, in which opponents salute, go on guard and sustain an intense, strenuous, graceful dialogue through their gestures and weapons. Classes will cover footwork, blade work, strategy, training drills and exercises.
Film Studies: Greatest Food Films
What do Ratatouille, Big Night, Fast Food Nation and Mystic Pizza have in common? Food.
In this course, we’ll discuss what role food played in the meaning and success of these films. How does Hollywood use food as symbol? Does it portray the exuberance of wealth, the hunger of a country or simple human cravings?
Film Studies: Midnight Madness at 9:00 A.M.
Midnight Madness is an after-dark popular genre that highlights the weird and the wonderful. Films include thrillers, chillers and rockumentaries. We’ll view movies not normally seen at your local multiplex and discuss why this cultural expression is such a quiet worldwide phenomenon.
Improv: Comedy
Learn techniques used by the kings and queens of improvisational comedy in Chicago and New York to create short scenes that will keep your audience laughing. We’ll show you how today’s top comedians let an idea from the crowd guide their spontaneous performance.
Intro to Guitar: School of Rock
How many times have you said, “I’m going to learn to play the guitar”? Really mean it? Here’s your chance to get started this summer.
This is an introductory course, so everybody is going to be starting at the beginning. Come and learn how to tune the guitar, play chords, and melodies and accompany a song. If you’ve got a guitar, bring it; otherwise use one of ours.
Magic: Secrets from the Stage
This is the course where a professional magician will share secret knowledge behind lots of entertaining illusions and mystifying tricks. You’ll learn tricks using coins, cards, cups, balls, pigeons, chains, handkerchiefs and rope.
Magic: The Art of Illusion
Mesmerize your friends with street and close-up magic, card tricks, coin tricks, levitation and other cool illusions. Learn the art of magic performance from a professional magician — including how to wow even the toughest crowds with easy-to-do tricks that work every time!
Photography: Creative Close-Ups
Find out how close-at-hand subjects can make larger-than-life images, or how a tightly shot photo can provide the details to set a mood. This course will show you how to take a closer look and capture great images.
Photography: Stop Motion
Learn how to use camera functions to take great pictures. We’ll show you how shutter speed can stop fast-moving action, how depth of field can create an artistic background, or how changing your point of view can turn an ordinary subject into an outstanding photo.
The class will cover digital and traditional film photography, as well as the use of imaging programs.
Psychology: Dealing With Your Parents
Do your parents drive you crazy? Do they run scared from Facebook, MySpace and text messaging? Why can’t they just understand?
We’ll discuss your relationships and help you cope with your parents. Most important, we’ll teach you how to avoid conflict while still saying what’s important to you.
Learn the art of negotiation and create solutions that work for everyone.
Psychology: Personalities
What makes you different from the person sitting next to you? Your personalities, of course! Begin to understand how an individual’s set of characteristics uniquely influences his or her motivations and behaviors in various situations.
Radio: Broadcasting & Production
Join our in-house DJ at the controls of Radio Krinsky to record talk shows, music, commercials — the gamut of radio programming.
You’ll learn how to write a radio script, sequence and fade songs to create a seamless flow of music, and keep the show moving in the face of technical problems. Each student will have an opportunity to broadcast their show at camp and experience the thrill of on-air stardom.
Radio: DJ Scratch & Mix
Come and make your own breaks in the beat to create your own version of a hit song. You’ll be pulling records and working a driving beat by learning aggressive risky mixing techniques. Refine your skills with baby scratches, forwards, chirps and scribbles.
Sculpture: From 2D to 3D
Come and creatively feel your way around the art studio as we have fun with sculpture. You’ll start with your own ideas and translate them directly into 3-dimensional reality. This is the ultimate “hands-on” course and you’ll use the media and materials you really like — choosing from wire, clay, paper, plaster of Paris and more — to create your own work of art.
Self-Defense: Street Smarts
Is that person following you a threat? Does walking alone in an unfamiliar area make you a little nervous? Here’s where you learn how to take action.
Awareness and street-smart common sense are the keys to protecting yourself. This workshop will teach you how to read a situation and react early, or defend yourself with the weapons that are available to you: your voice, hands, feet, keys and more.
Self-Defense: With Confidence
The key to defending yourself is confidence. This workshop will identify your strongest physical assets and teach you how to use them to defend yourself. Become less vulnerable and more confident through our confidence-building approach.
Speed Reading: Fast & Furious
Imagine reading faster and still having a great understanding of the material. We’ll use a variety of techniques such as identifying words without focusing on each letter, not sounding out all words, spending less time on some phrases than others, and skimming small sections. At the end of this course, you’ll breeze through magazines, books and essays like a pro.
Squash: Essentials
Squash is an indoor racquet sport in which both players alternate hitting shots against the front and side walls. If you like fast-paced action, then this is a great sport for you. We’ll cover basic techniques, rules and strategies. All levels are welcome.
Trends: Understanding the Whys
We’ll trendspot and monitor how trends influence and change the world. How long does it take a trend to catch-on? When is it time to rewire a trend? When is it time to retire a trend?
From iPods to Crocs, we’ll study current phenomena to develop the skills needed to spot coming trends on the cultural horizon.
Yoga: Sun Salutations
See how graceful and flexible your body can become. Create strength, stamina and overall conditioning while discovering techniques for stretching, relaxing, breathing and meditating. Our stress-busting workout will help you stay calm and perform better whether you’re taking a test or competing at sports.
Yoga: Yogalaties: Get the Fusion
Can fitness get any better? Yes — if you blend the best of two of the most popular systems of health and fitness. Combine the core emphasis of Pilates with the postures and breathing of yoga and you get fusion.