OPTIONAL COURSES AND ACTIVITIES
(No extra fees)
Choir
Scholars may sing in a choir, which will focus on developing vocal and performance techniques and will introduce scholars to a range of musical genres. Scholars must be able to read music. The choir will give a performance at the end of the Programme. No extra fee.
Calculus Prep Course
Ideal class for beginning calculus scholars, as well as those preparing for Calculus AP (both AB and BC) exams. Ten sessions, including lecture, class participation, and out of class assignments. The lecturer has the excellent ability to explain complex calculus topics to learners of all backgrounds and abilities. She will provide each scholar with a manual she has written containing essential elements of calculus clearly explained and illustrated, taking scholars from limits to derivatives to integrals. No extra fee.
Community Service Volunteering
Scholars will have volunteering opportunities in Cambridge. They will gain a wide range of skills, such as teamwork, management, communication, business skills and many more. Up to ten hours of community service will be awarded to scholars while on the Programme. A certificate of attendance will be issued to each scholar who participates. Community Service, though technically not a requirement, most colleges generally use these service hours as an unofficial college requirement for acceptance. No extra fee.
Rowing/Crew
It is one of the oldest Olympic sports. In the United States, high school and collegiate rowing is sometimes referred to as crew. Cambridge University’s first recorded races were in 1827. The Boat Race between Oxford University and Cambridge University first took place in 1829. In 1843, the first American college rowing club was formed at Yale University. The Harvard-Yale Regatta is the oldest intercollegiate sporting event in the United States, having been contested every year since 1852, excepting interruptions for wars. You may be a beginner, intermediate or advance rower. A certificate of attendance will be issued to each participant, which you may include with your college applications. No extra fee.
PGA Golf
The exclusive Cambridge golf club, Gog Magog Golf Club, with PGA golf professional instruction. Equipment provided. No jeans. Limited enrollment of 15. No Extra fee.
Battle of the Bands
Annual competition between bands. Prizes awarded to best bands. Guitars, drums and electric piano provided by Programme. Bring your own guitar if you wish. No extra fee.
Theatre
Scholars may audition to participate in one of two Shakespearean productions, either as actors or stagehands. There will be performances at the end of the Programme. No extra fee.
PSAT, SAT, ACT Review
Experienced instructors from the USA will guide participating scholars through an intense workshop geared to “conquering” both the SAT and ACT. Additionally, National Merit aspirants preparing for the PSAT will find the workshop beneficial. Scholars will focus on learning specific techniques to strengthen math, grammar, critical reading and writing skills, as well as strategies to enhance the individual’s test-taking ability. Included will be actual, previously administered SAT and ACT tests. A calculator is required. Please note that taking this course precludes taking Choir, Theatre, or Calculus, Community service, rowing and golf. Five sessions only. Limited enrollment of 75. No extra fee.
Britain’s Cultural Revolution, 1958-c.1974: Youth Culture, The Beatles and the Birth of Student Power
In the 1950s and 1960s British Culture, for so long in the shadows of American cultural dominance established in the 1920s with the ‘talkies’ and the ‘swing’ music of the Jazz Age, became a global brand. Following the most devastating war in history, Britain and Britons slowly emerged from the immediate postwar years of austerity and rationing to forge a cultural renaissance that transformed Britain, and its capital London, into the cultural centre of the Western World during the ‘Swinging Sixties.’ In this course we will discover the birth of the teenager and the advent of mass marketing and culture industries, such as popular music, during the late 1950s and early 1960s. We will analyze the phenomenon of ‘Beatlemania’ - in other words, how four working-class lads from a Northern industrial city, Liverpool, became the most significant and creative force in the history of popular music-either at the time or since. In addition, the course will explore the influences shaping British cultural life during the 1960s such as the process of ‘Americanisation’ and what this entailed. Furthermore, the course will examine the revolution in the lives of young people brought about by the emergence of mass higher education in Britain; the increase in affluence and the greater social and occupational mobility of the era. The course will introduce scholars to innovative new historical work being undertaken on Postwar British Culture by historians such as Dominic Sandbrook, David Fowler, and Doug Rossinow (from the US). An excursion to Abbey Road, where the Beatles recorded their pathbreaking albums ‘Abbey Road’ and ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and the London School of Economics, where the first student ‘sit-ins’ in Britain took place, and in fact, the crucible of the student revolution in 1960s’ Britain. The course will illuminate a period of recent British history when British culture was at the forefront of creative ideas and global influence. No extra fee.
Course Lecturer: Dr. David Fowler, Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Cambridge.
Course Reading: D. Fowler, Youth Culture in Modern Britain, c.1920-1970: From Ivory Tower to Global Movement-A New History (Macmillan, 2008) Available at Amazon.com.
Cambridge Application Workshop
Application to Cambridge must be made in the autumn before a scholar hopes to be admitted. This includes a personal statement and a 15-20 minute interview, which can be conducted by a representative in the States or in Britain. Applying is highly competitive and very good grades are an essential requirement. It is designed to provide additional help and practical experience for those scholars who are considering applying to Cambridge. It will be of general use in advising scholars on self-presentation, interview techniques, writing personal statements, and so forth. It will give scholars a valuable informal perspective on the process and will de-mystify a system that many American scholars find bewildering. The first session will advise scholars on how to complete the relevant application forms for University admission. It will cover what University admissions tutors are looking for in terms of both qualifications and extracurricular interests, what will stand out in a scholar’s application, and what would disqualify them for entrance. No extra fee.
The second session will take scholars through the process of application: Who reads their application? How is it assessed? When will they expect to be interviewed? Scholars will be advised on every aspect of the interview, from what to wear to what kind of questions they can expect.
In the third session all scholars will have an individual 10-minute mock interview with a tutor, followed by a discussion of their performance and of the personal statement they will have prepared.
Group theatre matinee in the West End with two plays to be seen by all scholars in both Academic and Leadership Programmes
