Past Winter Camps (2016-19)
Between 2016 and 2019, KKA hosted three winter camps in NYC, each attended by five high school students. Our camps' mission is to guide our students to consider potential academic majors and career paths, explore the campuses of NYC's top universities, connect with local community leaders and service organizations, and maximize their experience at NYC's culturally significant institutions. Each of our camps featured an eclectic ensemble of no less than ten guest speakers, from Google programmers to architects to social media influencers. Our students had invaluable opportunities to not only pick their brains, but even work 1-on-1 with them to develop independent projects and chart their future paths. Yet, even with all the intense self-examination and self-enrichment, our students still managed to sing karaoke, bake Christmas cookies, play laser tag, and enjoy the holidays in very good company in a home away from home.
Excerpt from schedule of events for Winter Camp 2018
Excerpt from schedule of events for Winter Camp 2017
Highlights
Wilton, a Columbia graduate, guided us on an in-depth campus tour, covering not only the usual landmarks but also classrooms and engineering labs to which normal visitors would be denied entry. He demonstrated the use of state-of-the-art lab equipment, showcased his senior engineering design project, and explained the academic requirements for those of us interested in pursuing an engineering major.
We visited the Teen Resource Center in Chinatown to learn about common issues facing today's youth, including mental health, LGBTQ+ issues, and race and cultural identity. As a direct result of this experience, our student Raio was inspired to found a resource center for LGBTQ+ youth back in his hometown of Guangzhou.
We also visited other organizations committed to social advocacy, including the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and the Bluestockings Cooperative.
On Christmas Eve, when the Fordham campus was closed for the holiday, Eileen miraculously managed to help us gain access--and we had the whole campus to ourselves! She led us to explore classrooms, facilities dedicated to different academic departments, and the school's dizzying, elaborate tunnel system by which all its buildings are connected.
Having studied art history at Dartmouth and visited museums incessantly on his travels, Kenton subverted our preconceptions about art and equipped us with a framework to evaluate and appreciate art without expert knowledge.
We visited a number of art institutions over the years, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MoMA, and exhibitions at the Japan Society and NYU Tisch.
