Fruit Snacks, Literature, and Enthusiastic Snapping: A Summer at Stanford University
With two bags in hand and nervous excitement abundant in my mind, I stepped onto the Stanford University campus. Dusty grass and century-old buildings framed my vision as I internally battled how well I would do. It was June 20, 2018 and I was about to spend the next five weeks here as a Program Assistant for the Great Books Summer Program.
The process to finding this opportunity was nothing short of a miracle. As an English Lit major, I was absolutely sure that I wouldn’t find any summer jobs specific to my field. Regardless, I gave it a shot and checked PNW’s job search site, Handshake. There it was in all its glory: a job at this mysterious thing called the Great Books Summer Program. I had never heard of it before but was immediately intrigued. I gained a basic understanding of the program by looking on its website, which explained that “for over sixteen years, GBSP has gathered exceptional middle and high school students from across the world to read, discuss and debate selections from the greatest works of literature. Students experience college-level seminars, engage in lively discussion, and enjoy summer fun with other literary-minded students.” It sounded like a dream come true and the more I continued to look into it, the more I fell in love.
After spending an overzealous amount of hours on my essay-formatted application, I was interviewed and eventually offered the job to be a Program Assistant (P.A., informally). Being one of the P.A.s meant that I was in charge of monitoring the feisty and joyful campers, who ranged in age from 10 to 17, during their stay on the Stanford campus. I was to make sure they were both learning effectively and enjoying their time with us.
The job ended up being a lot more than I expected, both in requirement and in reward. From 7 in the morning until lights out at 10:30, we all learned and laughed together. Alongside my fellow P.A.s, I was the primary caretaker, occasional teacher, and constant morale booster, lunch buddy, and shoulder to cry on for the campers. The intense schedule caused equally intense mental exhaustion, but it was redeemed in a multitude of wonderful forms.
The encouragement to continue onto each upcoming and contesting day was omnipresent during the late night P.A. wanderings we embarked on after our shifts were done. Its essence glittered around us like the stars we lounged under, promising that tomorrow would be okay.
It also came during one of my 13 year old campers’ speech on why feminism should be taught in schools. As she spoke with a fiery eloquence, the crowd constructed an ocean of snaps and stomps in strong confirmation of her tenet as I nearly burst from pride for her.
The catalytic confidence was in the smiles my campers gave me after they clicked with — and even enjoyed — my teachings on Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses.” Being the vessel through which my students could not only comprehend something written generations ago, but could also personally connect with it, was insurmountably fulfilling. Aside from it being my favorite poem, I feel that a line from “Ulysses” resonates well with the opportunity that GBSP gives its attendees to connect with so many diverse individuals. It is short yet sublime:
“I am a part of all that I have met.”
I must quickly indulge into the camp’s literary adventures so that I may emphasize their necessity. The middle and high school students tackled university-level prose and poetry head on as I watched in pure admiration. They read the works before bedtime and learned about them in seminars early in the morning. The works we studied ranged from 19th century poetry to modern dissertations on moral relativism. It was definitely challenging but it was somehow also so much fun. Without all of the literature we had to bond over, the camp would not have been as unique or memorable as it was.
It seems now that the aforementioned redemptive joy was felt the most during our final installment of the weekly open mic. The night beforehand, after all of the campers were in their dorms, I rallied a group of GBSP staff into the dorm’s theater room and we decided to surprise our fantastic and benevolent Program Director as well as the campers with a musical performance.
The song choice came to me as I reflected on the heart of GBSP. I considered the way that this fast-paced, intellectually challenging, and insanely exciting environment created a mosaic. Each person (camper, P.A., or otherwise) contributed to this camp with a different background, creed, and situation, yet we were all there for the same reason. The Great Books Summer Program called out to us, the lonesome and literature-loving individuals, in a way that it couldn’t to anybody else. The song simply had to embody that.
“You Will Be Found” from the 2015 Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen was effortlessly chosen. Below is a video of the musical’s original cast performing it live on the Today Show for those unfamiliar with it:
The performance began with a couple P.A.s singing the lyrics. The rest of us joined in on the stage for the first chorus. It floated through the air as an anthem for anyone who has felt they did not belong. We were off key and off tempo literally the entire time — yet, we were so, so powerful; we had the Stanford campus standing behind us and our newly connected lives waiting ahead of us. As the words continued to flood the atmosphere, campers came onto the stage and took part in the final chorus:
“Even when the dark comes crashin’ through, when you need someone to carry you, when you’re broken on the ground, you will be found. So let the sun come streaming in
’cause you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again. If you only look around, you will be found, you will be found.”
The mosaic of GBSP represented itself beautifully that day.
Watching the kids join in during that final show made my heart swell because it confirmed something to me: this program is far more than a summer school and is far different from any other summer camp. Our campers come to us at a time in their lives when acceptance and identity are things in which the latter must be compromised to strengthen the former. GBSP turns this idea on its head in the most amazing way and its results are nothing short of moving. It binds students’ transforming lives together through written work, allowing them to become a part of each person they meet. It offers to them a home within which they can be found.
While my experience at Stanford University was not what one might expect, I wouldn’t want it any other way. Working for the Great Books Summer Program was not simple or easy; it was done on too little rest and too much sugar, but it was undoubtedly worthwhile.
As I reflect back on it — the fruit snacks, literature, enthusiastic snapping, and all — I think I found a home there just as much as the campers did and I can’t wait to go back.
