Last summer, Nikole was one of 30 students that attended Summer @ Peace, a program to help high school students improve their study skills and prepare for the upcoming school year. We asked Nikole to share a little bit about what Peace Community Center meant to her.
Boy did I have fun! It was summer and I intended to forget about school. Then, remembering I was going off to my first year in high school, my intentions then suddenly changed. I wanted to start out in high school on my best foot…I needed help. I didn’t even know what foot to start out on. I signed up for Summer @ Peace. I was told I would receive help with tutoring in English and math and that there would be field trips followed by fun trips.
Mrs. Ruiz tutored the freshman in English and Cyrus from School of the Arts was my tutor, along with others, in math. I learned a lot and also learned that I had a lot to learn. The teachers also taught us about what math and English would be like in high school.
There were students entering all grades of high school at Summer@Peace. I met a lot of friends and became less frightened about my first day at school. I knew that there would be people there that I knew from Summer@Peace.
On our Friday morning field trips we went to university campuses to visit and we at lunch at the campuses. First, we visited PLU. I was most impressed with their library. It was huge! Secondly, we visited the University of Washington. The campus there was huge and the students all seemed very focused. Lastly, we visited Seattle Pacific University. I liked that one the best! I found out their business program (the program I want to be in) ranked in the top 5. Their cafeteria was way better than the other campuses, and I liked the fact that if you clapped your hands in the center of the brick paved commons a squeaking noise that couldn’t be explained could be heard.
We had a great time on our fun trips Friday afternoons too. We went to the Family Fun Center in Tukwila. We all had fun on the rides. Another Friday we went to the Experience Music Project in Seattle and we saw videos of Jimi Hendrix playing his guitar. Our last Friday fun trip was to the Woodland Park Zoo. They had every kind of animal there. The gorillas were sleeping covered with blankets!
Anyway, I can’t believe I almost passed all this up to sit at home in the summer on my computer. I got off to a great start in high school, I met some good friends, got a lot of help getting ahead in English and math – but mostly, boy did I have fun!