Costa students prepare for college through nation-wide summer programs

This past summer, Costa students travelled across the nation to top universities to take prestigious pre-college programs.

Junior Emma Gordon attended a three-week digital filmmaking program at Columbia University in New York City, and specifically appreciated the program’s approach on teaching.

“We made and studied short films and gave each other critiques. On the last week, we all produced and directed our own individual short film,” Gordon said.

Gordon is part of Costa’s Mustang Morning News, and wanted to try a different side of media making this summer.

“This program, combined with being in broadcast journalism, is making it clear that I want to study film in college,” Gordon said.

Columbia is one of Gordon’s dream schools, and she learned a lot about the campus in her three weeks staying in the Columbia

dorms.

“They’re some of the best dorms I’ve ever seen. I got to live in a single but made a ton of friends on my floor,” Gordon said.

On the other side of the country, senior Riley Marsh participated in a pediatric health and surgery pre-college program held at UCLA called Outset. This program introduces high school students to pre-med and offers courses on applying to medical school, different medical tracks, and general knowledge of the field.

“I listened to lectures and took notes on them, and did a practice M-CAT. We also did interactive, immersion based classes, like when we went to Cedars-Sinai and used their simulation center,” Marsh said.

The program prepared students for real world medical emergencies, and gave opportunities to train students in the same way those in pre-medical school do.

“One day, they had actors in rooms who pretended they were sick or hurt, and we got to play the part of doctor

and really help them,” Marsh said.

Marsh is applying to colleges this fall and is grateful to this program for how much new information and insight the program has brought her. She feels prepared to go into pre-med applications given her new knowledge and experiences.

“We learned every detail about applying to med school, down to study habits for each specific specialty,” Marsh said. “This program caters to anyone thinking about any field of medical study, and has helped me narrow down which one I want to pursue.”

Marsh said her favorite part of the program was working with and have conversations with real doctors.

“There were professionals from tons of different medical fields: surgery, anesthesiology, OBGYN, pediatric, and more, who came to talk to us about how be successful in that specific field and answer questions we had about it,” Marsh said.

Summer programs are great ways for students to

immerse themselves in an educational environment during summer break and give them insights into careers they may want to pursue.

“I’m so glad I got the chance to spend summer in New York. I feel so much more clarity for my future,” said Gordon.

Photo caption: EVENING RUSH: Students walk across Columbia University’s campus at sunset. Photo courtesy of Emma Gordon