Featured Story
Soaring Success for Summer at St. Luke’s
From Summer Program Director Hunter Martin:
With all eyes on the opening of the new Arts & Jensen Family Humanities Wings, the time is opportune to take note of another new beginning on the Hilltop—Summer at St. Luke’s—which featured 15 programs for students, educators, as well as community members, covering over a dozen topics ranging from public speaking to robotics, and from mindfulness in education to North Korea. By summer’s end, more than 250 participants had taken part in St. Luke’s array of enrichment offerings, an 82% increase from the previous year.
Indeed, no sooner had the spring semester wrapped up than Summer at St. Luke’s sprang to life, with a record number of rising seniors returning to campus for the College Essay Writing Workshop. Across the week, students developed their Common App and supplemental essays with instruction and individualized feedback from St. Luke’s Sonia Bell, Frank Henson, Hunter Martin, and Stephen Vehslage.
One participant noted that the experience, “provided me with the guidance and structure necessary to craft compelling and profound college essays,” while at week’s end Mr. Henson affirmed: “I love teaching this workshop. Since colleges are seeking personal narratives, it’s a chance to bring out the storyteller in students, and help them find meaning in their experiences, thoughts, and differences.”
The ever-popular Makers Camp returned with two novel offerings: robotics, led by St. Luke’s alumna Brittany Barton ‘17, and Raspberry Pi, a computing platform, led by designLab Director, Michael Mitchell, with rising senior Carolina Warneryd ‘18 providing additional support and tech-spertise.
Other programs that were back on the books for a second year included Foundations of Computer Science, a condensed, fully online, for-credit course taught by Zach Brusko, and the Academic Writing Workshop, which this year added an online component, offering rising 9th and 10th graders the opportunity to explore the fundamentals of English grammar and analysis on their own schedule, before coming together for additional instruction and practice just prior to the start of the new year in order to ensure everyone hits the ground running in 2018.
To close out the summer, Abby Abbott’s Humanities Seminar, which for the second year running claimed top honors as the first-to-reach-max-enrollment (in just 3 days!), took students on an edifying and enjoyable romp through the history and contemporary landscape of North Korea, focusing in particular on “Soviet Spectres, Totalitarianism, and the Weird World of Kim Jong-un.”
In addition, Summer at St. Luke’s debuted five brand new programs in 2018, including an installment of the College Essay Workshop open to non-SLS students; a Public Speaking Workshop taught by Frank Henson, known to one and all in the St. Luke’s community for his powerful and compelling oratory; a Middle School Math Camp, taught by Jay Blau and Susan Garnett, that afforded rising 5th-7th graders an opportunity to solidify their understanding of key math concepts by applying them in the context of real-life activities; a two-part Health & Wellness Mini-Course, with Matt Bavone leading a module on technology and digital citizenship, and Matt Ward facilitating a module on healthy relationships; and a JumpStart Algebra II workshop taught by Mary Frederick—better known to her students as Coach Fred—so popular that we had to scramble to add a second, evening section in order to accommodate all those interested in honing their skills.
To top it off, Summer at St. Luke’s featured two programs geared towards adults and educators: the second annual Mindfulness in Education Conference, which drew over 50 participants to its panel discussions, guided practice, and keynote address by noted scholar and practitioner Tish Jennings from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, along with the first annual High Tech Humanities Conference, which in partnership with the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) brought together educators, academic technologists, and administrators from the tri-state area, and featured a number of St. Luke’s faculty presenters, including Abby Abbott, Matt Bavone, Hunter Martin, Carrie Meatto, and Tom Owen.
Though the summer has only just drawn to a close, we are already busily planning our slate of offerings for Summer at St. Luke’s 2019, which in addition to our growing array of signature programs will surely include new and exciting opportunities for students, faculty, and community members alike, and when at long last we will be able to make full use of St. Luke’s state-of-the art facilities. Stay tuned for details in the coming months.
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With all eyes on the opening of the new Arts & Jensen Family Humanities Wings, the time is opportune to take note of another new beginning on the Hilltop—Summer at St. Luke’s—which featured 15 programs for students, educators, as well as community members, covering over a dozen topics ranging from public speaking to robotics, and from mindfulness in education to North Korea. By summer’s end, more than 250 participants had taken part in St. Luke’s array of enrichment offerings, an 82% increase from the previous year.
Indeed, no sooner had the spring semester wrapped up than Summer at St. Luke’s sprang to life, with a record number of rising seniors returning to campus for the College Essay Writing Workshop. Across the week, students developed their Common App and supplemental essays with instruction and individualized feedback from St. Luke’s Sonia Bell, Frank Henson, Hunter Martin, and Stephen Vehslage.
One participant noted that the experience, “provided me with the guidance and structure necessary to craft compelling and profound college essays,” while at week’s end Mr. Henson affirmed: “I love teaching this workshop. Since colleges are seeking personal narratives, it’s a chance to bring out the storyteller in students, and help them find meaning in their experiences, thoughts, and differences.”
The ever-popular Makers Camp returned with two novel offerings: robotics, led by St. Luke’s alumna Brittany Barton ‘17, and Raspberry Pi, a computing platform, led by designLab Director, Michael Mitchell, with rising senior Carolina Warneryd ‘18 providing additional support and tech-spertise.
Other programs that were back on the books for a second year included Foundations of Computer Science, a condensed, fully online, for-credit course taught by Zach Brusko, and the Academic Writing Workshop, which this year added an online component, offering rising 9th and 10th graders the opportunity to explore the fundamentals of English grammar and analysis on their own schedule, before coming together for additional instruction and practice just prior to the start of the new year in order to ensure everyone hits the ground running in 2018.
To close out the summer, Abby Abbott’s Humanities Seminar, which for the second year running claimed top honors as the first-to-reach-max-enrollment (in just 3 days!), took students on an edifying and enjoyable romp through the history and contemporary landscape of North Korea, focusing in particular on “Soviet Spectres, Totalitarianism, and the Weird World of Kim Jong-un.”
In addition, Summer at St. Luke’s debuted five brand new programs in 2018, including an installment of the College Essay Workshop open to non-SLS students; a Public Speaking Workshop taught by Frank Henson, known to one and all in the St. Luke’s community for his powerful and compelling oratory; a Middle School Math Camp, taught by Jay Blau and Susan Garnett, that afforded rising 5th-7th graders an opportunity to solidify their understanding of key math concepts by applying them in the context of real-life activities; a two-part Health & Wellness Mini-Course, with Matt Bavone leading a module on technology and digital citizenship, and Matt Ward facilitating a module on healthy relationships; and a JumpStart Algebra II workshop taught by Mary Frederick—better known to her students as Coach Fred—so popular that we had to scramble to add a second, evening section in order to accommodate all those interested in honing their skills.
To top it off, Summer at St. Luke’s featured two programs geared towards adults and educators: the second annual Mindfulness in Education Conference, which drew over 50 participants to its panel discussions, guided practice, and keynote address by noted scholar and practitioner Tish Jennings from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, along with the first annual High Tech Humanities Conference, which in partnership with the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) brought together educators, academic technologists, and administrators from the tri-state area, and featured a number of St. Luke’s faculty presenters, including Abby Abbott, Matt Bavone, Hunter Martin, Carrie Meatto, and Tom Owen.
Though the summer has only just drawn to a close, we are already busily planning our slate of offerings for Summer at St. Luke’s 2019, which in addition to our growing array of signature programs will surely include new and exciting opportunities for students, faculty, and community members alike, and when at long last we will be able to make full use of St. Luke’s state-of-the art facilities. Stay tuned for details in the coming months.
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 40 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Leading with Humanity curriculum builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
