Summer Living and Learning at Eckerd College

This summer, high school students will have an exciting opportunity to live and learn on Eckerd’s campus. Eckerd will be hosting four pre-college programs in fields such as marine science and creative writing this June 11-16, 2017.

Pre-college programs are a rapidly growing phenomenon at colleges and universities across the country. Christina Lutz, Instructor of Writing at Eckerd, who coordinate’s Eckerd’s Pre-college programs, explains that they offer “a way for students to experience college life, both academic and residential.” While many schools now offer a pre-college program, one thing that makes Eckerd’s programs unique is a focus on particular subject areas. “We give students the opportunity to explore and delve into their passions,” Lutz explains, “rather than just taking whatever classes happen to be offered. If a student is interested in marine science, for instance, she’ll have the chance to get her hands wet—literally and figuratively.”

While each program has a different focus, all of Eckerd’s programs are led and taught by Eckerd faculty. They all include highly engaging, collaborative class sessions in which students participate in discussion, group activities, conversations with guest speakers, and in most cases, field trips to sites around the Tampa Bay area. All of the programs also include a host of evening activities, from bonfires on South Beach to karaoke parties in the Pub, led by current Eckerd students. “They really get a taste of Eckerd life,” Lutz notes.

This summer, Eckerd will offer pre-college programs in four different areas:

• Mastering Leadership. This program adapts curriculum from Eckerd’s renowned Leadership Development Institute, which has served executives both locally and worldwide for thirty-seven years, for a high school audience. Students will participate in assessments, feedback sessions, and working in groups, focusing on effective leadership and personal development.

• Marine Science. This program takes students into the field and into the lab to introduce them to methods used by marine scientists studying birds, sharks, dolphins, and other species. Students will have the opportunity to conduct biological surveys, deploy hydrophones, fly a camera drone, and construct a remotely operated vehicle.

• Young Writers in Paradise. In this two-week program, co-directed by Lutz and Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Jon Chopan, students work closely with Eckerd faculty to read and discuss student-generated work in groups and individually. Students will develop their writing talents in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comics, screenwriting and more, and understand what it means to be part of a larger literary community. The program will culminate in a Young Writers Gala, where students will share their work with an audience.

• Imagining Sustainability. This program, sponsored by the Florida Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities, explores environmental issues through the lenses of history, philosophy, cultural studies, and the arts with a unique hands-on approach. Students will  have the opportunity to learn about environmental history through beachcombing, explore urban planning through creative writing, and study the cinema of water by making underwater films, among other activities. This program is co-directed by PEL Executive Director Amanda Hagood and Daniel Spoth, Assistant Professor of Literature at Eckerd.

2017 marks the fourth year that Eckerd will offer pre-college programs for high school students. The idea originated in a collaboration between Eckerd College and the Florida Humanities Council, which launched a pilot version of a residential program--Humanities 20/20: New Eyes for a New Century--in the Summer of 2014. The program, reflects Eckerd Professor of Literature Julie Empric, who served as director, was meant to combine a rich, in-depth study of the humanities with the collegial bonding that is so important to the residential college experience.


"It's not a camp in the sense of a junior high school," Empric says. "Instead, it's an attempt to give students a sampling of what happens in a college--particularly a first-year college--experience."

Building on the success of this initial program, Eckerd offered additional summer humanities seminars for high school students in 2015, 2016, and now 2017 (all with continued co-sponsorship from the Florida Humanities Council). Young Writers in Paradise was offered for the first time in 2016, and Mastering Leadership and Marine Science will pilot this year.

Whatever students’ interests may be, Lutz says, Eckerd's Pre-college programs give students a valuable firsthand understanding of the college experience, from studying with experts in a given field to the excitement of living in a community of learners. “These programs help students prepare for college, with more understanding of college life and more confidence in their abilities."

The focus on college preparation is also the reason why these pre-college programs are open to rising high school juniors and seniors only. But students who cannot participate this year will have many opportunities to do so in the future. Eckerd plans to continue offering these four programs in the years to come, as well as adding a new program in Visual Arts starting in the summer of 2018, allowing students to take advantage of the soon-to-be-completed, state of the art Visual Arts Center at Eckerd.

Interested in learning more about Eckerd’s Pre-college programs? Visit https://www.eckerd.edu/precollege/ or email Christina Lutz at precollege@eckerd.edu.