This past summer, students used their Martin Nicholson scholarships to explore their interests and passions all around the world. The Martin Nicholson Scholarship is awarded to incoming freshmen prior to the start of the school year. It provides students with $1,000 to put towards a summer program, course, or any activity that pertains to their academic interests.
Sophomore Ella Wilson used this scholarship to participate in a course about finance called NYU Finance: An Insider’s View, which allowed her to experience what a job in the finance industry would look like.
During Ella’s week-long course, she had morning and afternoon classes every day. Even with such a packed schedule, she and other students in the program still had time to explore the city. Going into the classes, Ella didn’t know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised with the structure of her classes. Most days, the class would start off by using a program called Stock Exchange which allowed students to make their own investments and see the results. This allowed Ella to explore what the stock market is like in a fun and engaging way.
One of Ella’s favorite experiences during her course was when the group visited Wall Street and was able to really take a deep dive into the stock market. Ella highly recommends this program to anyone interested in finance. “Since I know I want to go into finance in the future, it was definitely a great way to find out what a future job could look like,” she said. “It also let me experience what college in a city would look like.”
Much like Ella, junior Ashley Buckingham took on her own adventure as she traveled all the way to Oxford, England. Unlike many other students, Ashley took full control of her course and planned her trip on her own. She took her course through Putney Student Travel, which provides study-abroad opportunities for high school students. Ashley took part in one of their pre-college programs called Oxford Academia where she studied journalism and business for two weeks.
For her program, students were required to take a major and minor class. Ashley majored in business problem-solving with a minor in journalism. The class she majored in met every day except Sunday and lasted three hours. Her minor class would meet every other day, for two hours. In her business class, Ashley was able to travel around Oxford so that she and her fellow classmates could apply what they were learning in class to the city.
On days when she didn’t have her minor, afternoon activities would be planned for the students so that they could explore the city even more. “I was able to try punting, which is an Oxford sport,” she said, “along with having afternoon tea and learning about the history of Oxford.”
One thing that Ashley enjoyed about this course was that she was taught by experts in the field, rather than teachers. This made the classes more real-world based and allowed the students to see and hear what it is like to work in that profession. “In my journalism class,” she said, “we were able to go around the city and interview people so that we could write real-life articles.” This allowed for both her major and minor to be very hands-on while allowing students to experience what working in these fields might possibly look like.
Ashley found that one of the biggest benefits of this course was being able to meet new people who all came from different backgrounds and lived different lives. This course overall provided Ashley with a good understanding of what college would be like, and how to find her own independence in new environments.
Junior Ava Cashman attended a program with The School of the New York Times, where she took a course called ‘Pop Music as Art and Business,’ which focused on the business side of the music industry.
Her classes were split up throughout the day, starting with a morning class and ending with one in the afternoon. Morning classes began with a focus on a certain aspect of the music industry, such as copyright law or diversity in music. Then, during her afternoon classes, she and her classmates would revisit that topic either with a writing assignment or by visiting a certain area of New York.
One of Ava’s most memorable experiences from this class in New York was visiting the Youtube Music Headquarters. “We were able to meet major executives who deal with the labels and brand building of artists,” Ava said. These visits allowed Ava to expose herself to a variety of professionals who work with music in all sorts of different ways.
When originally applying, Ava thought that she would be looking for a course more journalism-heavy, but after reading this course’s description she knew that this was the perfect fit for her. “I’ve always loved music,” she said, “but never knew how it would apply to a career, so this course really excited me.”
For all three of these students, these courses allowed them to explore new interests and passions. Whether that be traveling to a new state, or trying something new that they may possibly want to do in the future. Overall, Ashley, Ava, and Ella, in addition to all the other students who partook in Martin Nicholson courses this summer, were able to experience new things and places along with being able to experience what college could be like.
