Duke University Alumni Magazine

ummers may be hazy but they are by no means lazy when the sunny season comes to Duke. Activity levels soar along with the mercury, while the average age of the student population probably drops by five years. The two academic Summer Sessions share the quads and facilities with a variety of youth programs and summer camps in the sciences, sports, and the arts. With American Dance Festival classes and performances as its centerpiece, the campus buzzes like the bumblebees among the abelia bushes lining Chapel Drive.

     Duke Action: A Science Camp for Young Women engages fifth- to seventh-graders in field and laboratory work on campus in June and at Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina, in July. This summer, participants had an actual meteorological laboratory experience when Hurricane Bertha bore down on the beaches, forcing students to return to the Durham campus for a couple of days. Besides outdoor field trips, educational games and simulations, and lab experiments, the camp provides a chance for emerging female scientists to interact with women who work in the field.

     Aspiring athletes who want to strengthen their skills find a haven among the multiple sports camps. There's the always-popular basketball camps for boys, a women's basketball camp, baseball, field hockey, football, a golf school for boys and girls, lacrosse, women's lacrosse, boys' soccer camp, girls' soccer camp, strength and conditioning for both, a youth tennis camp, an adult tennis camp, and a girls' volleyball camp.

If a student is drawn to artistic rather than athletic expression, there are creative classroom offerings as well. Now in its fourteenth year, the Young Writers' Camp, for students from the sixth to eleventh grades, offers three sessions for both residential and day campers. Some courses have included "The Craft of Crime," "Song Writing," "That Perfect Scene," and "Poetry: Pictures with Sound." A postgraduate program has evolved for high school juniors and seniors. And there's even the Writers' Workshop for adults that offers intensive, small-group instruction and readings in all genres.

New this year, and another program spinoff from the writers' camps, is the Duke Drama Workshop. Young authors who have written plays now have a chance to produce and act in them. The two-week drama experience offers daily acting classes, rehearsals, improvisation, theater games, and a chance to hone works in progress.

     Back for its second year is Expressions!, a fine-arts day camp for budding artists from grades five through eight. From a selection of courses in drama, dance, visual art, music, and creative writing, students work on individual and group projects, some highlighting one area of study and some that integrate two or more. Field trips and recreation complete the mix.

     For purists, The Brightleaf Music Workshop is an intensive, eight-day program for rising seventh-graders through high school, college students, and music educators. Master classes, workshops, rehearsals, demonstrations, and per-formances comprise the curriculum.

     TIP, Duke's Talent Identification Program, is an intensive curriculum for academically talented rising eighth- through eleventh-graders who have taken the SAT or ACT and have qualifying scores. Participants generally complete the equivalent of a year of high school or a semester of college-level work in the three-week sessions. There's a summer residential program for college credit, a satellite science program, and a session of courses in French, Japanese, Russian, or German at the Center for Language and Culture. TIP also offers a six-week precollege program for rising twelfth-graders. Students take part in the regular Summer Session that includes seminars, workshops, and residential life activities.

For those who prefer a brand of summertime when the living is easy, Duke's Summer Festival of the Arts provides passive enjoyment with concerts, films, and special events--from Duke Gardens to Duke Chapel to Page Auditorium and other performance halls.

     Information for next summer's fare is available from the Office of Continuing Education and the Summer Session at (919) 684-6259, the Talent Identification Program at 684-3847, ADF and special events at 684-2382, and Sports Informa-tion at 684-2633.