:: UCLA TODAY Home

©2004
The Regents of the University of California
 

Photo by Pablo Serrano Hannah Freund (left) and Sophie Landesmann, both of Austria, cool of in the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center pool. While visiting relatives in L.A., they joined a UCLA Recreation camp.

Summer in the city: Kids of all ages flock to camps on campus

by ajay singh
today staff writer

Frank Agrama wants to pursue a career in film, following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps. So when he heard about a top-notch UCLA summer camp in advanced digital filmmaking, he wasted no time signing up.

Besides staying focused on his career goal during summer holidays, “I thought it would really help being on such a renowned campus,” said the 18-year-old Los Angeles native. He will begin film school in Boston this fall with a distinct advantage: The summer camp, directed by the School of Theater, Film and Television in association with US Performing Arts, puts a heavy emphasis on storytelling, about which Agrama knew very little until he attended the camp.

Like Agrama, hundreds of students from across the country seeking to get ahead signed up for a slew of academic summer camps offered by UCLA Summer Sessions, UCLA Arts Camp and UCLA Extension. Besides offering courses in math, social sciences and SAT preparation, UCLA Extension even offered an offbeat “enrichment” program in improvisational comedy. Also on campus for a six-week math and science program were 11th and 12th graders who were guests of the UCLA Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity. Administered by the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, the program was aimed at students from communities traditionally underrepresented in “STEM careers,” that is, careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Courtesy of the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity High school students work in a lab during a summer camp to boost diversity in engineering, math and sciences.

For the first time, UCLA Summer Sessions and UCLA Arts Camp offered housing, dining and counseling, thereby ensuring that students remain immersed in their work. They earn college credit, but even more importantly, enjoy access to outstanding faculty and facilities — “an excellent way to prepare for their academic futures,” said Kathleen Micham, marketing coordinator for Summer Sessions, which offers a range of programs in music and the arts.

Of course, some of the most popular summer programs are outdoors. UCLA Recreation kept youths busy windsurfing, swimming at water parks and sailing, besides exposing them to the heart-pumping action of laser tag, racing go-karts and climbing indoor rock walls at the Wooden Recreation Center.

Summer camps began as a way to expose young Americans to rural life. But for some, the UCLA Recreation camps also are a means to explore urban Los Angeles — as was the case with Sophie Landesmann and Hannah Freund, two preteen friends from Austria who came to L.A. to visit relatives.

Fun, games and learning aren’t all that happens at summer camp. Many youngsters forge close friendships. “You’re with your friends all the time, doing something you love, which doesn’t happen at home,” said Gabe de la Vega, a Monterey, Calif., native who attended the UCLA Arts Camp Musical Theater Conservatory, thanks to an anonymous donor who paid his $3,800 tuition fee through US Performing Arts.

Some youths feel personally transformed at camp. One parent wrote to Micham, saying her daughter’s life was changed by working with Jens Lindemann, an internationally renowned professor of trumpet in the music department.

Another student told Myrl Schreibman, adjunct professor in the UCLA film school and producing/director of the Arts Camp, that his “way of looking at the world,” his very “sense of being” had changed. Said Schreibman: “Those are the kind of stories we at UCLA really value.”