OPTIONAL COURSES AND ACTIVITIES
| Application Workshop |
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. Extra fee $200.
Community Service Volunteering
The group volunteering with SOS Children's Villages will be taking part in numerous activities in order to highlight different aspects involved in international charitable work. Much of the work will be focussed on self-initiative, a skill integral to any fundraising office.
On the opening day, they will be introduced to the organisation of SOS Children and its international work. On following days, the groups will then be divided into teams where they will be encouraged to formulate and arrange a fundraising or awareness activity, lasting an hour and taking place at the end of the period in Cambridge. The way the task is approached will largely be up to the groups, but the main point of the exercise is for the students to consider the practicalities behid fundraising and awareness raising, the differences and cross-overs between fundraising and awareness raising, and to have the self-motivation to organise and arrange events without too much help.
SOS Childrens Village is the world's largest orphan charity, caring for 78,000 orphaned and abandoned childrend in 124 countries world-wide. As well as providing children with a new home and loving family for life, the charity also builds and runs schools, medical and social centres, and organises community care and development. 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. Extra fee $300.
PGA Golf
The exclusive Cambridge golf club, Gog Magog Golf Club, with PGA golf professional instruction. Equipment provided. No jeans. Limited enrollment of 15. Extra fee $300.
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: Shakespeare
As the 'Cambridge College Programme Repertory Company,' scholars will reheasrse and perform two Shakespeare plays to an open audience at the end of the course. Directoed by professional thetre practitioners, scholars will experience 'open air' performing and/or 'theatre in the round,' focusing on acting technique, voice and movement work, script analysis, and working as an ensemble. A workshop audition is held on arrival in Cambridge to determine casting, and rehearsals commence after formal classes beging the following week. As an ensmble company, we welcome all performers, stage hands, costume and prop makers as well as, artists and painters, from complete beginners to seasoned professionals: no-one is ever turned away! There is no extra fee for this course, but passion, enthusiasm, and commitment is required. No extra fee.
Theatre: Brand New Broadway
An exciting opportunity to work with a West End performer and trainer to devise and perform Cambridge College Programme’s own Broadway-style musical production.
Calling all songwriters, singers, actors, designers and musicians, to collaborate in piecing together a truly original work, tailor-made by and for the scholars all in the three weeks on the Programme. The performance at the end of the course promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime event - literally!
Chris Dickins has performed many times as in London’s West End shows such as the Sound of Music and Blood Brothers, and has written and composed five of his own musicals, all of which have been professionally produced, nationally and internationally. He runs the Musical Theatre Course at the Academy of Creative Training in Brighton, and also works as an Associate Tutor and Examiner at the prestigious GSA Conservatoire, one of the UK’s top drama schools.
This is a unique opportunity to create a unique piece of work that should be a truly exhilarating experience! (No extra fee)
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. Extra fee $500.
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 tand a stop at Paul McCartney's home in London.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. No extra fee.
Horsebackriding Instruction
Extra fee $400