• Help You Grow

Slipping up is a key factor to helping develop yourself. You had to learn somehow that going out the night before a test isn’t the smartest move. Copying your friend’s homework during lunch isn’t the brightest idea, considering you’re having a hard time with the lesson. One way or another, you had to learn. There’s nothing quite as effective as learning first-hand that something is a mistake. Students should be urged to embrace their mistakes because it contributes heavily towards their self-development.

• You Can Afford It

Being a teenager, you have plenty of time to make mistakes.  Embracing your shortcomings at this age allows you more time to recover and learn. Would you rather run trial and error tests to find your best study habits later in life when you’re halfway into your college career, or now, while in high school? Obviously, the latter because you can take that knowledge in high school with you into college and beyond. Let’s say you decided to make a shoe company in your sophomore year of high school. A year later, it failed. No big deal, it was a learning experience, right? And being young, you have plenty of time to recover. Take advantage of your longer time horizon and don’t be afraid to make mistakes while you can afford them.

• Not Limited By Fear

When you understand that mistakes help you grow and are affordable, you will no longer be paralyzed by the fear of making mistakes. Your slip-ups should no longer be seen as obstacles, but learning tools. When your fear of mistakes is diminished, you also become more confident in yourself. This allows you to understand what you do incorrectly and remedy it. By doing this, you’re allowing yourself to expand upon your knowledge in a productive manner.

The post Mistakes Are Essential appeared first on Summer Springboard.

Students arrived on campus at Berkeley eager to begin an exciting two-week pre-college experience. We started the program off with an orientation and some teambuilding and ice-breaker games to get to know one another. We were delighted to see the students connecting so quickly and excited to discover what the students will learn in the next days!

During the mornings we broke out into small groups based on the student’s Academic Tracks. During this time the students got a chance dive deep into the subject area of choice with engaging professors and professional experts.

Medicine & Public Health and Psychology track students engaged with volunteer staff from the Suitcase Clinic, a humanitarian organization offering free health and social services to the underserved in Berkeley. Communications students met with UC Berkeley social media directors and learned how the university communicates online with the public. We also had the director of admissions from Haas, UC Berkeley’s leading business school, share about her experiences and about pursuing an MBA and a career in business.

Law & Government students engaged with officials from the city and federal levels, including an Assistant US Attorney, a Deputy District Attorney for San Francisco, and Katy Tang, Board of Supervisors Member for San Francisco’s fourth district. Our Technology students heard from a Mulesoft director about career strategy and how the company uses its technology to help global businesses connect to data and devices.

Afternoons consisted of either a “The True You” session or a guest speaker together as a group. These are a series of insightful seminars that allow teens to look inward and discover their unique definition of success and give them the tools to achieve it and big ideas that are practical, impactful, and easy to apply to everyday life.

Speakers included Elizabeth Weingarten, associate director of the Global Gender Parity Initiative at New America Foundation, a public policy think tank. Nick Corman, an entrepreneur and former Google executive also met with students and discussed insight from his time as a student at Harvard and career in Silicon Valley. The students were engaged with their peers and prompted questions for the experts that led to some insightful and intriguing conversations!

On the weekend we explored the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, volunteered at the Oakland Zoo and even took a San Francisco city tour on a restored cable car!

Every night we planned fun activities for our students. Some of the highlights included trivia night, arts & crafts, karaoke and an ice cream social! Happy, healthy and making friends from around the world at Berkeley. These fun times with students and staff made for an unforgettable summer!

The program wrapped up with student presentations. Each group presented what they learned about their potential majors and academic areas of interest.

Medicine & Public Health students developed an in-depth presentation on the topic of vaccinations. Technology students developed and presented their own mobile applications. Law and Government students had a mock trial with the students serving as the jury. Communications students presented news articles they had written and held a press conference with live Q&A. The Psychology students presented in depth analysis of some of the most famous historical experiments. And our Business and Entrepreneurship students presented their own business models, complete with financials and market research for potential investors.  

Pictures, hugs, smiles, and some tears happened as goodbyes were being said. We were thrilled to see the strong friendships that were made among the students and excited to see what the future holds and to be able to continue in sharing their future successes!

The post Summer 2017: Summer Springboard @ UC Berkeley appeared first on Summer Springboard.

This year we welcomed two cohorts of students at Yale who were eager to begin their exciting two-week pre-college experience on the historic campus. Each session started with orientation and some teambuilding and ice-breakers to get to know one another. We were delighted to see the students connecting so quickly and excited to discover what the students will learn in the next days!

During the mornings we broke out into small groups based on the student’s Academic Tracks. During this time the students got a chance dive deep into the subject area of choice with engaging professors and professional experts. The Medicine & Public Health and Business track students met with local dentist Jeralyn Frantarella and held lively discussions on the application and cross-section of medicine, entrepreneurship, technology and business. Communications students visited the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford and immersed themselves in the life and history of one of the country’s most beloved and controversial authors. Law & Government and Psychology students had the opportunity to observe a sentencing trial in a criminal case and afterwards met with the judges from the Superior Court of New Haven. Their honors shared insights into their careers and led a discussion on the role of mental health in the criminal justice system.  Our Technology students heard from directors of UCONN’s tech incubator about career strategy and how the university matches its resources with investors to help launch start-ups in various sectors.

Afternoons consisted of either a “The True You” session or a guest speaker together as a group. These are a series of insightful seminars that allow teens to look inward and discover their unique definition of success and give them the tools to achieve it and big ideas that are practical, impactful, and easy to apply to everyday life.

All students enjoyed a session with Craig Matters, former Managing Editor of Money Magazine and founder of CNN Money. Craig took time to share career advice based on his own personal and professional  journey. The students were engaged with their peers and prompted questions for experts that led to some insightful and intriguing conversations!

On the weekend, each group volunteered at the Connecticut Food Bank and prepped thousands of pounds of boxes for citizens in need while learning about the issue of hunger. We also explored Boston by land and by sea, taking in a tour by “duck boat” and walking the historic “Freedom Trail.”

Every night we planned fun activities for our students. Some of the highlights included trivia night, arts & crafts, karaoke and an ice cream social! Happy, healthy and making friends from around the world at Yale. These fun times with students and staff made for an unforgettable summer!

The program ended with student presentations. Each group presented what they learned about their potential majors and academic areas of interest. We had many great projects including potential businesses, mobile apps, medical hypothesis and more! Pictures, hugs, smiles, and some tears happened as goodbyes were being said. We were thrilled to see the strong friendships that were made among the students and excited to see what the future holds and to be able to continue in sharing their future successes!

The post Summer 2017: Summer Springboard @ Yale appeared first on Summer Springboard.