Education

Courses Give High Schoolers a NYU Preview

By Somaya Bracy
Spectrum staff

Minutes before her last creative writing class, Leelu Ravi, 15, was sipping coffee and raving about what she’d learned during a whirlwind week of instruction at New York University.

“You learn a lot,” said Ravi, of suburban Westchester County, north of New York City. “I now feel more ready for tests like the SATs.”

Ravi is one of roughly 700 high school students from around the world learning about finance, writing, art and other subjects through NYU’s special programs for the pre-college set.

“We try to introduce students to the college life,” said Kristen Balicki, director of university programs, “and treat them like undergrads.”

A summer Art Intensive program painting class. (Photo credit: Karoline Xiong)

The programs are popular, said Noel Anderson, who directs and teaches in NYU’s summer Art Intensive for those high schoolers. One hundred students applied for the intensive’s 36 open slots this year.

“Talent is what we look for,” Anderson said.

During one of his classes, students were grouped together. They were refining still-life paintings of fruit and sculpting clay into various shapes. Zen-like indie music streamed through Spotify.

“Kids, especially this generation, are so stressed nowadays,” Anderson said. “Everybody’s so anxious … When you get to college, you have so much coming at you, it’s better to be calm. Just relax.”

“Patience is key,” New Jersey-ite Jahnaui Bonasal, 16, said, as her paint brush flicked across a canvass in Anderson’s class.

Some of the summer high schoolers enroll for courses at the School of Professional Studies. “The program offered guest speakers who I would never come to meet otherwise” said Chloe Gong, 17, who is from New Zealand.

She appreciated that, and all the many things she saw and experienced in the Big Apple. “You can find inspiration anywhere,” said Gong, who started writing in elementary school. “My first story was about kids with superpowers—because my life was so boring.”

Rachana Hegade,16, of Hong Kong, was in the same group of kids as Gong that afternoon, and in the same writing program: “NYU has a good writing scene. Meeting the author of The Dove,” she said, excitedly tossing her hands in the air. Hegade was all but shouting. “ … I feel more inspired.”

Josh Azrin, 15, also of Westchester County, studied finance in his summer classes. “My favorite part of the experience was the freedom and independence,” he said.

Rachel Bell, 17, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., took a course focused on the Black Lives Matter movement and heard, among other guest speakers, poet Candice Benbow, whose poetry Beyonce featured on her Lemonade album celebrating black woman.

She was given “tons of books to read on the Black Lives Matter movement and the racism [some blacks] face in prison … “ Bell said. “And I feel so blessed to be here.”

Mhi Fifield, 17, of Mclean, Va., said sliding into a seat in her summer class at Stern School of Business boosted her confidence.

“If you want something but don’t believe it will happen, then it won’t happen,” she said. “I don’t know exactly what I want to go into yet, but I’m learning at Stern.”