The manager of our hotel told us shortly before we headed out to the beach that Miley Cyrus was filming a new movie at that exact same location. Great, we thought, so there’s going to be five times as many people and a bunch of screaming little girls.

If you were not blessed to have the chance to hang out with junior Jules Cantor this summer, you missed out on a spectacle rivaling the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Kings Island is an amusement park; it is supposed to be fun. But, for those of us who have worked there, the words “Kings Island” can inspire a quite different reaction.

Sophomore Domenic DiFrancesco has been playing violin since he was four years old and viola for four years. These musical abilities were put to the test this summer at a highly reputable music program hosted by the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. For four weeks in June and July, DiFrancesco played viola from sunup to sundown.

This summer, I traveled to Israel for five weeks on a Bronfman Youth Fellowship. Although I knew that this would be an intense experience when I applied, I realized quickly that I did not really understand then how rigorous the program would prove to be. Over the course of the summer, we were exposed to truly amazing issues and people in the context of some of the most beautiful and meaningful places in the world.

This summer, I participated in a seven-week apprentice program at the Powerhouse Theater in Poughkeepsie, NY. Powerhouse is a collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College.

This past summer I worked at my local McDonald’s. Actually, it was my second summer working there. I ended up there again this summer because my parents said I needed a job, I already knew the ropes, and I was too lazy to find anything else.

Before my visit to Panama this past summer with CCDS, I wrote down three key things: be prompt, don’t overpack, and prepare yourself for a completely different culture!

The National Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF) on Medicine in Boston had neither the time nor the patience for nerves. Centered in the campus of Babson College, this jam-packed ten day program was geared toward educating high school students from all over the country about careers in medicine.

I have to admit, I was pretty nervous before I attended the flash fiction writing program at Brown this past summer. I had never had an experience like this, getting dropped into a place where I knew no one.