FUN IN SUMMER SCHOOL?

By Laura Comppen
Special to The Observer

The words “summer school” can often invoke fear in the hearts of schoolchildren across the country. In Harrison, however, summer school is a wonderland of opportunity and enrichment that students willingly (gasp!) sign up for.

With a staff of 25 teachers and aides, approximately 275 students from grades 1 to 12 voluntarily participated in the comprehensive Harrison Summer Enrichment Program, featuring classes such as architecture & engineering, stop motion animation, playwriting, vegan nutrition, instrumental music & band, environmental science and more.

From learning how to utilize power tools and electrical wiring to make a working lamp from scratch, to creating interesting ways to use trash to help save the environment, Harrison school children spent a sizzling summer of inspiration, enlightenment and creativity like no other.

“The Harrison Summer Enrichment Program offers a wide array of learning experiences for our students. These opportunities begin with language arts, math and health/fitness project-based learning activities as well as gifted and talented at our elementary level. At the middle and high school levels, there is a club-based format incorporating many diverse subject areas such as STEM, financial literacy and various aspects of the arts; and each class culminates with a final project. All these hands-on learning experiences make our students really excited to come to summer school,” Steve Valente, Harrison Summer Enrichment program coordinator said.

Fifth-grader and aspiring playwright Diego Diaz summed up his summer learning experience beautifully: “My class was really awesome. It was fun putting all of our ideas together and writing our own script. We even got to see ‘The Lion King.’”

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