The independence, the intellectual banter, the co-ed dorms, the cool classes — Francisco Soares likes the college life.
Except for curfew.
“We have to be back at the dorm by 10:30,” Soares said mournfully. “And we have to get up at eight. My roommate and I have six alarms going in the morning just so we can be up by eight.”
Soares, 17, and more than 750 high school students like him are living college life “lite” this summer through Northwestern’s National High School Institute, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this year. Nicknamed “cherubs” by NHSI founder Ralph Dennis, the bright-eyed students journey from high schools all over the country to study in six different divisions, ranging from forensics to film and video production.
“We give them a very intense look at what college life could be, a world of possibilities over five weeks,” said Nick Kanel, department assistant at the NHSI. “And we’ve found what they ultimately take away from the program is mostly independent from what we give them.”
According to their Web site, the NHSI goal is “to bring together gifted young people and superior teachers in an atmosphere of affection, knowledge and trust.” With days full of labs and lectures by some of NU’s most accredited faculty, there’s no doubt this summer’s program is doing just that.
“I do video production at my high school, so I’ve done most of this stuff before,” said Brian Weber, a film cherub from Palo Alto, Calif. “But now I have the chance to use the best equipment, to get lessons from people who really know what they’re doing. Before cherubs, I was totally self-taught.”
But it’s not all work and no play for NU’s newbies, many of whom say living and learning with the other students is the best part of the program.
“You meet people who have interests like you, who are going down your same path,” Soares said, nodding with a grin at his fellow film cherubs climbing on the lounge tables of the North Mid-Quads. “We all really enjoy each other’s company. It can get pretty crazy around here.”
And crazy can be a good thing — or at least most cherubs seem to think so. They say a healthy dose of drama every now and then is only natural.
‘There’s always some story that everyone’s talking about,” said Joe Lyons, a journalism cherub from Washington, Iowa. “But I think it’s because we’re all journalists, so therefore we’re curious. Okay, maybe a little gossipy, even, but never in a mean-spirited way; we’re just interested in one another.”
And, as Kanel pointed out, it could always be worse.
“You look at old Daily Northwesterns from the 1950s and you can see cherubs in the blotter,” he said with a laugh. “You’ll read, ‘1955 cherubs: What went wrong.’ Fortunately, we’re not dealing with that this year.”
Reach Gemma Mangione at [email protected].
