PRYSE Academy Weeks 3 & 4
Week 3: Settled into a Routine
With the third week of PRYSE Academy came a feeling of familiarity for our students, staff, and partners. The daily schedule became second nature with our students lining up to head to class before senior and junior counselors gathered them, knowing their way around the University of Pittsburgh's campus, and beginning to remember the names of students they met on day 1 of camp.
While there is a lot of routine and consistency at camp, there is variety in the skills students learn either in the daily classroom time and in the different creative workshops that students explore each week. Specifically, our mural making workshop with Conor Coleman is always different as our students add onto the art of the previous week's class through washing, or applying water to the canvas to create a translucent barrier between layers of art.
During week 2, our oldest students in the blue and green classes visited Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens and during week 3 the students in our yellow and aqua classes visited. Not only did our students and seasonal staff in these classes tour the Jungle Quest flower show, but Cody tagged along for the experience! Thank you to Carnegie Mellon University STEM Ambassador and YSC member, Rechab, for the beautiful photo included below.
Cody and students learn about plants from their Phipps tour guide.
We were also so excited to invite back long-time ARYSE partner, Anna Brewer, and cinematographer, Jack Ohrman, to begin gathering footage for this year's PRYSE Academy 2025 video! Anna has filmed and produced videos for ARYSE since 2019 and these videos can be found on our YouTube Channel.
Week 4: Special Guests at PRYSE Academy
This week, our youngest students went on a field trip to Phipps Conservatory. Like all the other visits, the students were guided throughout the botanical gardens and learned about different plant species and enjoyed posing for photos with some of the floral creations!
Students look at the floral elephant in the Jungle Quest exhibit.
This week of camp was extra special because we had a few guests join us. First, longtime ARYSE partner, Chris Sprowls, attended camp both Tuesday and Wednesday to take photos throughout the day. Chris has been taking photos at ARYSE programs since 2019 and a lot of our favorite photos have been captured through Chris’ lens. We can’t wait to share what Chris captured this summer!
Our second special guests were the staff of Congressman Chris Deluzio and PA State Representative Mandy Steele as well as a representative from APOST. We invited these staff members to PRYSE Academy so they can see our work in action and to participate in a roundtable facilitated by five of our Youth Steering Committee members: Reol, Rechab, Muzdha, Hawa, and Iragi.
This conversation focused on topics like education, language access, and job and workshop development opportunities. We are so proud of our youth leaders for not only asking questions but for sharing their own experiences to advocate for a better Pennsylvania. Thank you to the staff of the Congressman and Representative for joining us, and to APOST for advocating for after school programming at the state level!
Jenna introduces the roundtable discussion with YSC members and the staff of elected officials.