BY SAMANTHA STARK
Internet Editor

While most students spent their summer lounging at the pool, several students at Baldwin High school decided to go above and beyond in their preparations for college.

“It was really cool getting to meet and study with the professor who helped construct the end caps of the Large Hadron Collider,” senior Luke Gezovich said.

Gezovich was referring to the National Scholars Institute at the Belin Blank Center at the University of Iowa for five days. Where he studied classical, thermal, and quantum physics for five days.

The camp was set up so that students had a certain schedule for every day. He typically had three-hour classes twice a day and many hands-on activities.

The experiments dealt with real-life situations such as fiber optic technology. Students learned how fiber optics use radio waves to send information to telephones.

“The experience was great and it looks good on a resume. I also got a letter of recommendation from my professor,” Gezovich said.

Gezovich plans on studying applied physical sciences in college and he is looking at schools such as Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Rice University.

Meanwhile, senior Samantha Stangl attended the National Student Leadership Conference for medical and health care, a 10-day camp available to students planning a future in surgery.

“The University of California of Berkeley really opened my eyes to fields of medicine that I never would have thought of before,” Stangl said.

Berkeley featured a different speaker every day on different fields of medicine. Stangl also had a hands-on experience with suturing and dissecting.

“I loved getting to experience the hands-on activities. I learned a lot and am thinking of going back as a counselor after my first year of college,” Stangl said.

With three roommates, daily lectures, and a set schedule, the camp was a very realistic preview of college life.

That was also the case for a five-week camp Carnegie Mellon University held called the Pennsylvania Governors School for Sciences.

“It was definitely the best five weeks of my life. I was able to interact and learn with students like myself and see what attending an elite college would be like,” senior Terrance Ahlin said.

The classes Ahlin focused on were physics, biology, chemistry, math, computer sciences, and organic chemistry. Taking these classes will better prepare Ahlin for his dream of majoring in chemistry or chemical engineering and further attending medical school.

One key experience was treating the kidney cells of dogs with food additives to observe the quantity and health of cells.

“This was only one of the many experiences available during this once-in-a lifetime camp,” Ahlin said.