By: Jake Millay and Elisabeth Goodin
Hello Scholars! It has been a whole week of memory making, card playing, and meeting new people. Do you remember your first day nerves? Leaving family, friends, fur babies, and the comfort of our towns. Homesickness aside, we had an incredible and jam-packed first week full of enriching community experiences.
Monday we started our GSP journey with an exciting and intimidating community meeting, an early start to our first full day together. After our first focus area class and a constructive seminar, we filed into Frazier Hall for the activities fair. With what felt like millions of clubs to sign-up for, we began developing families within our much larger one. We ended the day with an inspiring, motivating, and interesting convocation with Tori Murden-McClure, the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean.
Tuesday was just as incredible; it began with a full morning with our general studies trying to piece together the ambiguity in the class titles. After meeting and conversing with our classmates, the first trivia night of the summer was held and won by “The Founding Father and Crew.”
Wednesday was focus area, focus area, focus area! We all started work on our separate creative projects and continued working to embrace the theme for the summer: seeing things with new eyes. The Classic Film series kicked off with “Dead Poets Society” starring Robin Williams, who plays a teacher who ignites the intellectual fires within his students’ minds. After sundown, the next generation of voters went to the first night of the Democratic Debate.
Thursday was a day dedicated to forming friendships in and outside of class. In addition to attending another day of general studies and seminar, we had free time to find new hobbies and family members. Multiple clubs took advantage of the free time with KEMPS, GleeSP, Bingo!, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, Tiny Keith Club, and the GS(wifties). We ended the night with day two of the high stakes democratic debate.
Friday morning was brightened with our wonderful campus director Jen Price giving us “Happy Friday” stickers, which can be collected every Friday of the summer. We all excitedly sat through classes anticipating the first GSP showcase. The talent show Friday night was captivating; it featured dance routines, singing, magic, dad-jokes, and instrumental performances. All scholars were amazed with the talent and ability of their peers.
Saturday made us all excited for our first community field trip, on which we attended culturally rich Louisville landmarks in an attempt to broaden our horizons. Later that night, we all came back to the dorms, changed into our Olympic attire, and headed to Anniversary Hall to compete in the famed “GSP Olympics”. The Olympics was an inclusive experience that allowed scholars to engage in friendly competition and teambuilding in order to forge stronger bonds in our seminar families. After an exciting day, Jen announced the first GSP dance of the summer. Each scholar rushed to the dorms to prepare for an Olympic-themed night of dancing and singing with the entire community.
Sunday provided a day to rest and rejuvenate after a fun filled week in anticipation for our voyage to continue. Our amazing RA’s drove vans to take scholars to the local Kroger; this gave us an opportunity to stock up on snacks, drinks, and necessities. Our night was brought to a close with Gretchen Hunt, former Governor’s Scholar and head of the Office of Victims
Advocacy for the Kentucky’s Attorney General. She encouraged us all to seek out our passions and to be persistent in the pursuit of each dream--even the impossible ones that appear to be unattainable.
Next week promises to be just as exhilarating as this week, with Intellectual Buffet, the Fourth of July, our second showcase, and Family Day.
Comments