Who ARE those kids? Summer at CTD

The size of the students populating the Northwestern University campus shrinks each summer. Six footers and students over 18 are few and far between. Instead you’re likely to see kids as short as three feet and as young as 4th grade—all with purple lanyards around their necks, with keys and Center for Talent Development/Northwestern IDs bouncing on their chests.

During most of July and August more than 1,600 students came to Evanston to participate in CTD’s summer academic programs. At the same time, we had 154 students enrolled in our Civic Education Programs held in both Baltimore and Chicago. Nearly 90 students attended three weeks of classes at our program located at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. And close to 1,000 preK-3rd graders signed up for the Leapfrog Program to take CTD classes at elementary schools in both Evanston and Glen Ellyn. The chairs are the right height!

But those are numbers. What’s it like to be one of the students? We asked Lara Kubilius, a rising junior who decided to learn one year of Latin in three very intense weeks (whew!), to describe a “typical” day in the Equinox Program (for grades 10-12).

At 6:01 each morning my alarm clock blasts the latest hit on 103.5 Kiss FM in my ear. Rather than fumbling to turn it off, I just lie there. I glance over at the clock again. When the red light blinks 6:05, I realize that if I lie here one second longer, there’s a pretty good possibility that I will not have time to take a shower. So I throw on my soft, white robe and run down the hall, taking care not to slip on the often soaking-wet floor.

7:15 am: “Good morning!” The cafeteria ladies greet me happily every day. My ideal breakfast consists of a fluffy blueberry muffin and some juicy, chilled fruit, but there are tons of options available: eggs, pancakes, French toast, bagels, apples, cantaloupe, banana bread, yogurt, cereal, and an assortment of muffins.

8:15 am: I head to class early because Latin I is located on the south end of campus in Fisk, the furthest possible distance from the dorm I’m living in. I complete this 20-minute hike to and from class everyday. Even though other kids only have to walk three minutes because their dorms and classes are adjacent to each other, I don’t mind this walk down the edge of Lake Michigan. On clear days the lake glistens and there are endless amounts of flowers of all different kinds and in many different shades of blue, pink and green.

8:30 am: By this time everyone should be in class no matter what course they’ve signed up for. Each class operates differently but my class, Latin, is self-paced. This means that we work at our own pace and if there is something we don’t understand we ask the teacher for help.

We usually start the day with a vocabulary game. In the game a player shows a vocabulary card to the other players who are organized in a circle. The player who calls out the correct English version of the word the fastest gets to keep the card. So when the card reads “casa” the first person to say “house” wins or if the card says “mater” the first to call out “mother” wins. Whoever has the most cards by the time the group has gone through all the vocabulary words is the winner. But this is school so all you “win” is the knowledge that you did a really good job.

9:30 am: I move on to do the work in my Wheelock’s Latin Workbook—a good study tool to prepare for the tests. Often times the declensions and conjugations on the test are the same ones from the workbook.

At 10:30, just about the time all the work seems daunting and my exhaustion from staying up late the night before is setting in, we take a break. I grab my money and head down the long hall to the stairwell. My friends and I use up all our silver change and crisp singles on food from the vending machines. Once we have all purchased our snacks, we head outside.

11:00 am: I slide back into my chair/desk combination. My classmates and I now move on to work on the Latin to English translations, which are the most challenging part of class for me. But, we have also come up with a good strategy for doing the translations. We work on them in small groups and then go over them with the teacher. By 11:50 we’re all glancing back at the clock, counting the minutes left until lunch time.

12:00 noon: Lunch time! The cafeteria you eat lunch in is determined by the location of your class. I flash my Equinox/Northwestern/CTD ID at the smiling cafeteria worker, grab a clean, red tray and head to the salad bar. Almost every day I load a mound of fresh green lettuce onto my slightly chilled, glass plate, then move down the line adding tuna fish, cheese, toasted pita slices and some ranch dressing. The cafeteria has very nice lunch-time selections: pizza, pasta, burgers, French fries, and grilled cheese are always options, along with breads and lunchmeats for making sandwiches. Next, I fill up my cup with Diet Coke and find my friends from Latin. We talk about anything but Latin, which usually means listening to Amy and Sarah chatter about the boys they have crushes on.

1:10 pm: I’m back in class and studying for my next chapter test. Even though we’re in a classroom with our books, other classes often take field trips in the afternoon or, in the case of Chemistry, for example, conduct experiments.

2:15 pm: Only 30 minutes left! I start thinking about what I’ll do when I get back to the dorm. I complete my test at the same moment the hands on the clock turn to 2:45. Done!

2:45 pm: Even though everyone is anxious to get together with friends, there’s one more matter we must attend to: a class meeting with our RTA (residential teaching assistant) to discuss the activities for the coming weekend. Sarah, Amy, John, Kevin, Lisa and I —the entire Latin class—decide to go to the classical music concert on Friday night and to Michigan Avenue to shop on Saturday. Other classes want to go to the more trendy Belmont area where you’re more likely to find one-of-a kind clothes including some serious Goth choices. Tomato and Pink Frog, on the other hand, sell vintage apparel.

3:10 pm: I head back to the dorm and sign in. A million people pile into my room. We stand around in the cramped, un-airconditioned room figuring out what we’d like to do this afternoon. We opt for Jamba Juice. It’s a long walk to downtown Evanston—about 20 minutes—but at least we’ll have cold drinks to sip on the way back through the 90 degree heat.

5:00 pm: We stop by the front desk for our 5:00-6:00 check in, and then head into the cafeteria for dinner. The choices are identical to those at lunch. After my friends and I finish and put away our trays, we head upstairs for our study session.

6:30 pm: Since my class decided to have a study session tonight, we gather in my room. We play the vocabulary game and then start on another translation. The dorm rooms are hot and loud so it’s hard to concentrate.

8:30 pm: We decide to take a study break and walk around the halls to see what everyone else is up to. We end up sitting around and chatting in one room. Usually our conversation is accompanied by music from the shared network on iTunes. Occasionally we also watch a DVD on someone’s computer.

10:30 pm: I head back to my room, change into my yellow pajama shorts and my navy blue t-shirt, slip on my fluffy white slippers, grab my toothbrush and face wash and start off to the often crowded bathroom. I wash my face, brush my teeth, and take one last bathroom break and walk back to my room.

11:00 pm: My RTA stops by to make sure my roommates and I are in our room. Sometimes I stay up studying, but tonight I go right to bed. Every moment of sleep is precious, so I quickly turn on my fan to full power and settle into my bed, pulling the bright, strawberry pink sheets up over me. Then I close my eyes. I know if I just practice a couple of Latin declensions, I’ll fall asleep. Amo amas amat. I’m done for the day.